Radnar's Game
by Freddo
Summary: It is now the year 2207. As my AU tale continues, Princess Invidia is slowly losing her war with Radnar and the Gamilons as Earth recovers from its losses in late 2206. But Invidia has new plans in mind. What will this cornered viper do next? NOW COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—RADNAR'S GAME**

**Being the sixth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

* * *

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---_Freddo_

* * *

**ACT ONE: A DARK NEW YEAR**

* * *

**I. THE BATTLES AT PLANET POGI**

**The Edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud**

**The Pogi System**

**200 Lightyears from the Sanzar System**

**Wednesday, January 21, 2207**

**1600 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Dagon's fleet had expanded, and it was currently protecting the rebuilt Gamilon base on the dusty desert world of Pogi where Lysis had once made his hiding place. 

Lysis was long gone, now. Dagon had taken his place, and he was fighting hard against a Cometine offensive that seemed to come back in another wave every few days.

It was a maddening sort of war.

Every time that the Gamilons thought they had a respite, the Cometines had been coming back.

But now, Dagon noticed, the Cometines had not been there for…roughly ten days.

"There's been no sign of the enemy?" said Desslok as he communicated with Dagon's flagship, the saucer-like command ship _Pentrava_.

"None, sir. They seem to have broken off their attack that day and they left."

"Do you have an explanation why?"

"We picked up a signal from the Andromeda region that came to them in code. My men are still trying to decode and interpret it."

"Very well," said Desslok. "Let me know as soon as you find out an answer. It is important that we know why we have been able to enjoy…a respite from the war."

Dagon saluted and cut off.

* * *

**II. DAWN'S DILEMNA**

**Medical Boat 21107**

**The Procyon Region**

**Tuesday, February 17, 2207**

**1600 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Dawn Westland was flying a medical boat from a pickup from the Procyon listening post to the _Argo_, where an injured Marine would require treatment. 

She was co-pilot of the boat, and was actually flying it; the boat's actual pilot and commander, however, was Lieutenant Bryan Hartcliffe.

"We're on course," she said to Hartcliffe as she worked the boat's control stick in its cockpit. "We should be back home in twenty minutes."

"I 'ave a complaint about you," said Hartcliffe. "And I'm talkin' with Doctor Sane about it when we land."

"What?" snapped Dawn.

"You're not like the other nurses. You're weird. How come yer not carryin' a bloody Astro-Automatic, luv?"

"Sir, my name is not "luv". It is Ensign Westland!"

"Well, then, Ensign, where's yer damn weapon? If we got shot at, yer think _I'm_ gonna defend yer weird butt?"

Dawn shook her head and glared at this grinning baboon of a Black Tiger pilot. "Sir! With all respect… I am a _nurse_, not a _soldier!_ I will not take another person's life! _Get_ it?"

"Getting' cocky, aren't we?" snapped the pilot in that maddening Scouse accent that made him sound like he was talking through his nose. "Listen. Every EDF nurse in the Fleet I've known 'as carried a sidearm and 'as a brain. Even Mrs. Pregnant Frozen Food flavor o' the Month on the ship has a sidearm they put 'er to sleep with. She's got that damn balloon, granted. So she's 'alf crazy, but you're really daft!"

"I am not _daft_!" snapped Dawn. "World Health Organization nurses and officers are not under any mandate to carry sidearms while on duty. EDF fleet people, yes. Us, no."

"You need to wear one," said Hartcliffe. "We'll discuss this on the ship, luv."

"Fine," snapped Dawn. She turned her head towards her panel and refused to talk to Hartcliffe for the next twenty minutes.

* * *

After they had taken their patient to Sickbay, Dawn sighed as she leaned against a bulkhead and noticed Hartcliffe arguing with Doctor Sane. 

"I'm tellin' yer, sir, she's looney. Doesn't carry an astro-automatic, and _won't_ carry one. What kind of flight nurse is that?" snapped Hartcliffe.

"One who is doing what she was trained to do," snapped Sane. "She is serving with us, but is under a different set of regulations and a different mandate. Besides, she is not even qualified to carry one, the issue from Miss Akers not withstanding. She just keeps her weapon in her cabin now and said she'll only use it in a boarding situation. The World Health Organization does not qualify people on those weapons, Hartcliffe. If you see her in dress uniform, she does not even have a qualification badge like we have in the Fleet!"

"So, she's a civilian?" said Hartcliffe. "And we have to protect her?"

"Her job, 24/7, is to be a nurse. Not a soldier!" barked Sane. "If that means you have to have eyes in the back of your head, then do your damn job, Hartcliffe!"

"Never 'ad to do this crap for Nova," snapped Hartcliffe. "She's weird herself, but at least _she's_ one of the _guys _and carries a sidearm and knows how to use it. When she's not sleepin' on the job like a frozen dinner, that is!"

"You idiot! There is a difference between an EDF nurse and a WHO nurse! I suggest you read up on those regs and write me a thousand-word essay and come back with it in five days! If you can even write, that is!"

"Yessir," said Hartcliffe as he saluted and walked off cursing to himself.

"Sir," said Dawn as she looked at Sane. "Maybe I should start carrying that…"

"You will not, unless you choose to!" said Sane. "You are doing the right thing, Westland. You and the other WHO nurses on this ship are nurses, not soldiers. That's why we split you up like that when you go off on missions. Now, I suggest you get changed and scrubbed. This patient we picked up needs a leg set."

"Yessir," said Dawn as she saluted. "And…sir?" she said.

"Yes?" said Sane as he popped the cork on a bottle of his "Spring Water".

"Thanks."

* * *

**III. REPORTS FROM THE FRONT**

**The Vicinity of Planet Petronia**

**The _Eritz Gatlantis_**

**Tuesday, February 17, 2207**

**1620 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

On the _Eritz Gatlantis_, Dyre stood at attention before Princess Invidia, reading off a number of intelligence reports. 

"It is that bad?" snapped Invidia.

"You wanted us to focus on the Gamilon base at Pogi and the new Gamilon/Terran joint base on Balan that is being built. We have forces that can do a little there, but we have been tied down at Bulgandis and at the Black Fox Nebula for the past few weeks. Radnar's forces…"

"Radnar," sniffed Invidia. "He is a fanatic we cast out years ago. I am surprised you are having this much trouble with him. Why can't Gernitz get his main fleet?"

"He has equal firepower, and you said we were not to lose the dreadnought _Devastation _under any circumstances. Radnar _also_ has a Dreadnought."

"And?"

"We lost a battleship squadron to him today near the Magna Star Cluster. His conquests are hitting the heart of our territorial space, Princess."

"No!" hissed Invidia. "This is an outrage! Where was his Dreadnought last spotted?"

"At the edge of the Black Fox Nebula. The Black Nebulans have been slowly rebuilding ever since a disaster caused by means that we are still trying to ascertain wiped out Planet Dezarium over five years ago. The Nebulans' forces are apparently under the command of an Admiral Vilzer, who had declared himself Lord of what remains of their race."

"Vilzer would still be under our command, then. Order him to have a fleet ready to engage Radnar's Dreadnought if it is seen in the area. Maybe he can be useful to us."

"Yes, Princess."

* * *

At the same time, the _Argo_ was making a report to the Commander. 

"So, Wildstar," said the Commander. "You have learned from the Gamilons that the war had mostly gone quiet?"

"Yessir," said Derek from the _Argo's_ closed Communications Room. "Desslok reported to us in his last communication that they had a period of intense fighting in January that included attacks upon his base worlds, and an attack upon our joint fighter base on Iscandar around New Fiji Island. Ever since then, he said, the fighting has stopped and the Cometines have not been seen."

"Does he know why?"

"He was a bit vague, but he said that they received intelligence that Invidia's forces may be at war with another race of some type. Desslok is not sure who it is."

"Hmmm," said the Commander as he put his chin in his hand. "We have recently received a request from the Iscandarian Government through Astra that the Defense Council is considering..."

"What would the Iscandarians want?" said Wildstar. "It would be important for us to help them."

"I'm not at liberty to say, yet, Wildstar. Stand fast and be ready for anything until we talk again," said the Commander.

"Yessir," said Wildstar as the screen wewnt black.

In his office, Singleton thought, _I think we will have to replenish our forces on Iscandar soon. Astra reported to me that they were in danger, particularly because of a new type of fighter plane seen with the regular Cometine ships in the last strike upon Iscandar in January. However, I can't tell Wildstar anything until the Defense Council clears it…_

* * *

Three days later, on the 20th Corporal Mick Stovall was surprised to find himself on the move again as he left the Tokyo Megalopolis on an ocean-going troop carrier ship. 

First of all, he was no longer a Corporal. Due solely to his time in grade, he had been promoted to Sergeant in the early part of the month.

Stovall was being assigned to a new platoon in Southern China, the 255th. He knew nothing about that platoon, except that they were in heavy battle with the Josiahites. They were to make landfall on the southern Chinese coast at Shantou in twenty days and then, they were to make their way inland to Yunnan Province, where heavy fighting was going on near the border with Vietnam.

Stovall had heard scuttlebutt that three platoons had bought it trying to secure the same area. For the first time in his miserable life, he was truly scared.

_I wonder_, he thought, _if they're sending me down here to China to die? Maybe they want me dead after all the crap at Melezart. I wouldn't put it past that damn Wildstar. He must've pulled strings to get me sent to this armpit of the world. I hope he dies and goes to Hell and never sees his friggin' Nova alive again. I hate them both, and I want them both messed up. They have screwed me over so damn many times. Him, and Wakefield…_

Stovall rubbed the Sphere for comfort. It upset him that Ekogaru had been keeping quiet for the past few days. He wondered where he had gone, and he was beginning not to care.

* * *

**IV. LIFE GOES ON**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**The Procyon Region**

**Thursday, February 26, 2207**

**2000 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

In the meantime, on the _Argo_, Dawn soon found herself becoming ever more attracted to Hardy. 

Dawn's prejudice against fighter pilots passed away the more she was with Hardy.

Dawn found, as she talked with Hardy more and more, that he had a strong, warm, peace loving nature underneath his soldier's face.

_He's kind_, she thought as they sat in the wardroom for one of their many meetings that day. _He's out here fighting, he carries his weapon, he flies his plane…but, he doesn't __like__ it so much, _she thought as she looked at him and smiled. _He's not like Deke, with a hunger for vengeance, he's…_

"Jeff," she whispered as she held hands with him. "You're different."

"Different from whom?" he said.

"Different from someone I knew once. It's a long story…and we agreed not to look at our pasts too much. You said yours was too painful…"

Hardy nodded. "I lost someone like you once in my life. We were very close during the Rikashan War. But, she…"

"She what?"

Dawn looked at Hardy and saw, to her shock, that a tear was running down Jeff's cheek. "Mio was killed. That was her name. Mio. And now you know why I don't like talking about her much…"

"I'm sorry, Jeff," said Dawn as she squeezed Hardy's hand and smiled at him. "Tell me about Georgia…"

"My parents have a nice spread there; nice big farm. I'd love you to go there with me someday…I'd love for you to meet them. Did you say your father died?"

Dawn nodded sadly. "The Gamilon War. My mom's all I have left. She lives in an apartment complex in San Diego called the Rio Amarillo…"

"Yellow River?"

Dawn nodded. "It's near this park where this new river was developed after the planet bombings after San Diego was rebuilt. I lived right there, near that park, not far from where the river feeds into the ocean. There's a beach near where I used to live. It's very pretty there."

"It sounds nice.."

The doors whirred open, and Stephen Sandor came in with Diane Henson. He smiled at Diane and whispered, "Guess who's at table number five again?"

"Why am I not surprised?" whispered Diane with a smile. She had been spending more time with Sandor herself lately, and was discovering that the quiet, serious science officer had quite a few interesting stories to tell about himself; if one could draw him out, that is.

While Westland and Hardy held hands and continued to talk, Diane looked at a near-empty table and sighed. "Steve…look…"

"It's him again," sighed Sandor. "I'm not surprised at that, either…"

Diane and Steve then sat down quietly as they watched Derek Wildstar stirring his coffee and looking into the cup.

"Hi," said Diane, who didn't know what else to say. "It's us, sir…"

"Oh?" said Wildstar as he looked at Sandor and Henson with little emotion on his face. "That's nice. Alone again, sorry…"

"Wildstar," said Sandor. "Feel like talking?" He guessed he probably wouldn't. He could see Derek had the same look on his face that his brother Alex Wildstar got when he was very depressed.

"Not really, Steve," sighed Wildstar. "I was just in Sickbay. I think you know where I was…"

"Wildstar…we're getting closer to the end of our deployment, you know," said Sandor. "Things are changing…I hope that Hardy isn't…"

"Him and that nurse?" sighed Derek. "Sandor, she's WHO, he's EDF. They don't need any kind of waiver, and they're not violating any regulations. And that's not whom I'm worried about…"

"Nova's going to be all right," said Henson quietly as she hesitantly squeezed her ex-boyfriend's hands. "So will your children. You'll see…"

"How do you know, Diane…?"

"You've found something very special with Nova," said Diane. "I've really come to think that even though you and I had a very bad split years ago, I've come to believe that Destiny was saving you for Nova. I think you had a second chance…"

Derek nodded. "Probably too much info, but…well, we were together, Diane. Nova was different. She had never been serious about anyone before me, she…"

"Hate to ask," said Diane. "Was she…?"

"She was," said Wildstar quickly. "And our first time together was our wedding night. No offense, Diane, it's…"

"What we went through was water way under the bridge," said Diane. "I…"

Then, Allison Forrester, the _Argo's_ new Living Group Leader, bopped into the wardroom and sat down at their table without being invited. Steve and Diane looked at each other and sighed. They guessed this would drive Derek away very quickly.

"Allison," said Derek. "I don't feel much like talking tonight. I'm sorry."

"Well, I am planning a party for the end of the month," said Allison as she laughed.

"But we don't have anything to celebrate," said Wildstar. "And, we don't really have any resources we can waste, and…"

"Allison!" sang another Living Group Ensign as she ran in. "You said you had an e-mail to show me?"

"Sure do," laughed Allison. "It's this guy, Mike…he's on the _Courageous_, and he's been writing to me. He's so cute!" laughed Allison. "Excuse me, sir," said Allison as she nodded at Derek and saluted.

"Forrester!" snapped Wildstar. "I need those reports for our meeting tomorrow morning. I need the advance text an hour beforehand at 1100 sharp!"

"Oh, those," laughed Allison. "They'll be there in your mailbox before we stand in that big circle before noon, sir. And why do we stand there in that dumb circle again?"

"So we can see the deck screen!" snapped Wildstar. "Things show up on there that are important, you know. Get to work on that report, Lieutenant!"

"Yessir," said Allison as she clicked her heels. "Off we go!"

Allison walked away with her friend, giggling like a schoolgirl as she left.

"Well, she didn't get the brains in that family," snapped Wildstar after she was gone. "That's for damn sure."

"Didn't you say she grew up with her?" said Sandor.

"Yeah, Nova told me that. She also told me that not that much of her rubbed off on her orphan cousin. Now, I'm seeing she was right. Damn, Becker was a better officer than _that_."

"I think that you have her held to a high standard," said Henson.

"If I do, is that a problem?" snapped Derek. "Excuse me, guys. I think I need to be up in my cabin for a while with this. See you later, Steve…"

Sandor nodded at Derek as he left. Then, Diane said, "How long has he been like that?"

"Since last October. What do you think?" said Sandor as Wildstar left. "Part of the problem is…he's a good officer, good kid and all, but…part of his heart is in that sleep tube. With Nova."

"What if she doesn't survive that operation?" whispered Diane.

"Then God help us all," said Sandor. "God help the universe…."

At that, Diane Henson could only nod.

* * *

**To Be Continued**


	2. Chapter 2

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—RADNAR'S GAME**

**Being the sixth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

* * *

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---_Freddo_

Note: This chapter contains a bizarre scene on R'Khell with detail some may find a bit disturbing. Just wanted to give a heads-up.

* * *

**ACT TWO: ABOMINATIONS**

* * *

**I. ROUTINE BUSINESS (and not-so-routine visions)**

**Space Battleship _Arizona_**

**The Vicinity of Sirius**

**March 1, 2207**

**1032 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Deke Wakefield and Jere "Brew" Marrable were flying together again as part of the same squadron. 

Only, now, there was a difference.

Due to attrition in the ranks of the Sun Tigers in a battle they had fought earlier this morning, Deke Wakefield had been promoted to Squadron Leader of the Third Squadron of the Sun Tigers, and Brew had been chosen as his squadron executive officer and the flight leader of the second flight of their new squadron.

Right now, they were flying in combat again on their first mission as a Cometine carrier had launched a number of fighters and boats against the EDF Base at Sirius.

So far, it was their lot to fight the enemy planes as the _Arizona_ herself moved in to attack the carrier and her escorts.

"Okay, Third Squadron!" barked Deke as he swung the squadron around to engage a spread of Cometine heavy fighters. "We got those Scorpion boats, now we have to catch up with those fighters before they can strafe the base. We're clear on what we're doing?"

Lots of "rogers" came over his headphones as Deke blasted down from on top of the fighters.

Before long, the Cometines began to succumb to their first attack as only two planes broke off, not knowing what was hitting them.

Enemy planes began to blow apart like flowers of fire as the Third Squadron worked very efficiently to blow apart their enemy tormentors.

Deke gave himself a thumbs-up, and then grinned at Brew as, not far away, his bud and his flight shot up a number of planes.

However, one of the enemy planes then swung around and jumped one of his own pilots from his second section.

"This is Ensign Ross!" yelled a Sun Tiger pilot. "One of them is right on my six, I need backup guys, I….ARRRRRGGGHH!"

Before Deke, or anyone else, could react, Ross' plane was blown to bits by the Cometine pilot.

"Okay, guys!" yelled Brew. "Ross was a good guy, but now it's payback time!" He thumbed his mike and said, "Second Flight, get that bandit!"

Brew's planes wheeled around, chasing the enemy pilot as he tried to high-tail it out of there. Finally, one of Brew's men lined up a missile on the enemy pilot's engine and fired.

The Cometine pilot soon blew apart into oblivion, following several of his flight-mates there.

Deke nodded, knowing he and his planes would have more work to do to stop the other four remaining Cometine planes.

_This day isn't over yet_, he thought.

* * *

Later on, back on the _Arizona_, which had made the enemy carrier run off without destroying it, Deke stood up at the Sun Tigers' Flight Group meeting and made his first report as a squadron leader. "And that's what happened. We took twenty planes and boats out, came back with ten, but we got back with twenty confirmed kills to our credit. The others ran off." 

"Not bad, splashing twenty fighters the first day," said Cory Conroy. "How'd you motivate your guys and gals, Wakefield?"

"Simple; I told them I didn't want my first day as squadron leader screwed up."

They laughed at Deke's honesty. But, Wakefield wondered to himself _What_ _is next out here? And why were things quiet with two attacks in less than a day? They must be up to something. And we'd better watch our sixes…we're down to thirty-three planes total on this ship. What the hell is gonna happen next?_

* * *

The same day, on Earth, in the late hours of the evening, Sasha "Petrovsky" sat in her mostly darkened dorm room after dinner, sighing to herself at her computer as she read the latest letter that Deke had sent. She was alone. Her roommate was away somewhere at a conference in Europe. She had no idea where her female roommate was. 

"_So, Sasha…they made me a squadron leader this morning. I just flew my first mission as a squadron commander today. We had losses, but just one. I came back, and we won._

_But why do I feel so hollow?_

_I think I figured out why; it's because I haven't seen you in months. I wish you were here to share this with me. _

_I wish you had graduated early, Sasha, and I wish you would be assigned to this ship, so we could spend more than a few minutes together. But when will that happen?_

_God only knows, Sasha…God only knows…."_

Sasha sat in concentration for a long while, trying to pierce the psychic veil that had been around her lately.

She could pull up images of her future, but they were confused and very disturbing.

She did know…or thought she knew…that Aunt Nova would survive, because one of her visions was one of her and Derek on a train together with her father somewhere on Earth. But then, the vision broke down into a vision of someone who looked a bit like Nova screaming at her with a dagger in her hand.

She didn't know what it meant, but it was very disturbing.

Other thoughts ran through her mind as she sat in the dim light in her room.

An image of herself in battle at the _Argo's_ radar wearing her midshipman's blues.

An image of herself in a dark cell somewhere, crying.

That image was replaced by an image of herself walking slowly down a beach in what she saw was a white wedding dress. Her father was at one side, and Nova was at the other side of her. She was the bride, and it was on a warm beach on Iscandar. Sasha recognized the smell of the sea, the warmth of the sun, and even the feel of the fine sand of a sacred beach, forbidden to outsiders, under her bare feet. But, she could not see who she was going to be marrying.

She saw only a shadow.

A shadow that scared her.

And she had no idea when this would happen.

The last image scared her most of all, somehow.

She was looking at herself nude by a full-length mirror, somewhere. She was studying her own profile.

The most disturbing thing, other than her nakedness, was the shape of her stomach.

In this vision, Sasha knew she was pregnant.

And she had no idea who the father of her baby was.

_I know something,_ Sasha thought. _I know it's not going to be long until you get home. But, every time I dream of you lately, there is some shadow between us. Why? What is it? I spoke with Astra at the Embassy the other day, after she told me how brave Aunt Nova was, that is, and I wish I could figure out what it was. Or what it is. Deke…when will we be together? When will things work out for us?_

At that, Sasha just put her head down on her desk, and she cried…

With utter frustration.

And utter confusion…

* * *

**II. INVIDIA PLOTS AGAIN**

**The _Eritz Gatlantis_**

**Approaching the Great Magellenic Cloud**

**March 1, 2207**

**2332 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Princess Invidia was happy when she heard about how the latest attacks on Earth, Sirius, Procyon, and Pogi had bloodied their enemies by downing some planes and damaging their bases. 

"And how goes the war with Radnar?" said a smiling Invidia as she spoke with Gernitz on her commphone.

"Princess, my dreadnought _Devastation_ succeeded in destroying a battleship squadron under Radnar's allegiance near the Magna Star Cluster. House Kolog had the nerve to send us a Notice of Complaint, reminding us that we are traitors awaiting their punishment."

"I am glad to hear that. In maybe one or two months, we can re-ignite the Comet Field and accelerate towards the Great Magellenic Cloud. Iscandar and Gamilon will be our next targets."

"Is that biting off more than we can chew?" said Gernitz.

"Never, not if I destroy Gamilon and then conquer Iscandar. The Earthlings have a special spot in their hearts for the Iscandarians. I am sure they may consider a surrender when we threaten to behead their friend Queen Starsha in public. If not, what does it matter? We can conquer them before they build up too many of their forces-even with what we have now. It will be easier once my Comet is burning across the skies again."

Gernitz and Invidia laughed at that together.

Dyre came in and saluted.

"Princess," he said. "I have more good news."

"Yes?"

"The R'Khells have agreed to aid us with a special assassination squad. Commodore Derek Wildstar is due back on Earth shortly according to our intelligence. We can hurt the Star Force by having him assassinated."

Invidia smiled at that. "Then we stop striking Earth for a short time to lull them to sleep so we can concentrate on bringing Radnar to his end. When we have Radnar sent to Arishna, if she even exists, then we can work on our strategy for taking Earth at last. They will be our next target after we neutralize Gamilon and Radnar."

"I also wonder where Yvona is," said Dyre. "I heard rumors she has gone soft."

"Our spies on R'Khelleva tell me she is pregnant."

"Pregnant?" said Dyre.

"Yes," said Invidia. "With Ekogaru's child!"

"But he is dead and possessing that Terran idiot?" said Dyre.

"Imagine him coming up from the afterlife to impregnate a woman," laughed Invidia. "And I thought only the dumb Earthlings were stupid enough to believe in Immaculate Conception with their Messiah or ruler or whoever that dead Terran was."

"Ekogaru, back from the dead and making women pregnant," laughed Dyre. "What deluded idiots the R'Khells are!"

At that, all of them laughed.

The Cometines thought this was incredibly funny.

* * *

**III. A SUDDEN, UNEXPECTED SUMMONS**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**March 4, 2207**

**1318 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

As Commodore Derek Wildstar and the first bridge crew of the _Argo_ looked up at the Commander's image on their main video panel, they could scarcely believe what they were hearing. 

"Sir?" said Wildstar. "We're relieved from our patrol here at Procyon?"

"Yes, temporarily," said General Singleton. "You will meet the carrier _Courageous_ later today at 1900 hours before you brief them. You are to be on your way to your new assignment at 2000 Hours. It is very important that you are on your way to your new assignment by then. You are to call me when you are to make your first warp. And, you are to have the ship ready for continuous warp conditions, possibly pushing the _Argo_ harder than you ever have before. For the sake of the Alliance, you are to make sure this mission is accompished."

"I am sure we can do it, sir. But where are we going?"

"You have to arrive at your destination in six days. The Earth Defense Council has ordered you to make port on Planet Iscandar on March the 10th. Can you get the _Argo_ there in six days under radio silence after you warp away from here? The Gamilons and Iscandarians already know that you will be coming."

"Iscandar, sir? By the 10th?" said Wildstar.

"Yes. I estimate you will have to warp 24666.66 lightyears every day to accomplish that. It is possible for the _Argo_ to do so under continuous warp conditions, but we have never attempted so many successive warps before. Can she do it?"

Wildstar looked at his crew, who nodded. "We can do it, sir. Or die trying."

"I will send you your sealed orders when you arrive in Mothertown," said Singleton with a smile. "Godspeed, Commodore."

At that, the _Argo's_ main screen went dark.

"All right, people," said Commodore Wildstar. "We have to put our heads together, and fast. Sandor, Yamanami, make certain the wave engine is ready for this new journey."

"Yessir," said Sandor and Derek's chief engineer together.

"Kitano, you and Miss Forrester are to work together on a course. I will not tolerate any mistakes."

"Yessir," said Tetsu and Allison together.

"Homer, connect us with the _Courageous_. Tell them that it is important they make our rendezvous on time."

"Aye, sir."

"Everyone else…you know your jobs." Commodore Wildstar got up and saluted. "Get us there. We have our orders."

* * *

Klaxons went off a few minutes later on the _Argo_ as, while they shared their lunch, Hardy and Dawn dropped their spoons when they heard Wildstar's announcement. 

"All hands, _now hear this!_ We are coming off station at 2000 Hours, and we are leaving Procyon under extended warp conditions. Our next port of call, within six days, will be Planet Iscandar in the Great Magellenic Cloud. I am not at liberty to tell you why we are being dispatched to Iscandar, but it is important that we get there. We will reach Planet Balan in three days and Iscandar in six days. We are under a communications blackout from the time we leave until we arrive at Mothertown. The Gamilons and Iscandarians have been forewarned of our arrival. All communication units will be shut down at 2000 Hours. The Cometines cannot discover our mission. It is urgent. Prepare the ship to head off. That will be all."

Wildstar cut off and Dawn said, "Did I hear that right? We're going to Iscandar? In six days?"

Hardy nodded. "We can do it, I just hope the ship'll make it. We're pretty badly beat-up from this deployment."

"Why are we going?" said Dawn fearfully as she held Jeff's hand. She hadn't expected to be leaving the solar system. Now, she was going off to another galaxy altogether.

"We go," said Hardy. "Because we're the Star Force. There is no one else to do our job."

At that, Dawn just nodded.

* * *

A few hours later, the _Argo_ had finished her rendezvous with the _Courageous_. 

The _Courageous_ drifted into the system as the _Argo_ headed away from Procyon VI at full sublight speed.

"Captain," said Homer. "The Earth commander on the base and the Gamilon commander send us their best wishes for our journey."

"Send our thanks, and make it fast. We have to call the Commander at 2000," said Wildstar.

"Yessir," said Homer as he typed out the message.

Kitano saluted and brought up their course on the screen. "Our first warp is taking us past the edge of our galaxy to the Hakrandis System. Then, we will scan space carefully to see what awaits us at our next warp target, 26,000 lightyears away from that. We warp at 2000 Hours each day until we get to Iscandar."

Wildstar nodded and said, "Homer, is the message sent?"

"Sent," said Homer.

"Send a message to the Commander. Then, we warp on schedule a minute later."

"Yessir!" said the whole bridge crew at once.

A moment later, the _Argo's_ engines came up, and the mighty ship made her first space warp.

Destination: Iscandar.

* * *

**SIX DAYS LATER…..**

Those on the _Argo_ who had never before seen Iscandar were stunned by the beauty of the blue ocean and the bright sun of the Sanzar System as the _Argo_ came out of a cloudbank on Iscandar with the Great Continent and Mothertown spread out below them like glittering toys.

Everyone made ready for landing, with what they would be doing next hush-hush as the ship hit the ocean in a spectacular spashdown and then cruised towards the city of Mothertown.

It did not take long for the _Argo_ to arrive and drop anchor and lower the gangplank. But, no one was allowed off the ship yet. It was clear that there was to be no shore leave…yet…

And no one knew what was happening; but, the Scuttlebutt Express filled the gap later that day as the crew ate dinner at 1900 Hours on March 10th.

* * *

"Ah've 'eard all sorts of things," said Bryan Hartcliffe as he occupied a table with Angie next to him. Tatiana Lubyanska sat at their table, with Diane Henson making up the fourth member of their party. 

Not far away, Dawn Westland and Jefferson Hardy sat listening as Hartcliffe continued with, "I 'eard Alex Wildstar's on board the ship."

"Alex Wildstar?" said Henson. "I met him once, he…"

"What's he like?" piped up Dawn.

"Weird," said Bryan Hartcliffe. "It's like 'e's a real sad and grim and gloomy sort. Hardly ever talks to anyone. Thinks 'e's an Iscandarian or somethin' now. Damn high and mighty attitude."

"You know that's wrong," said Hardy. "You know the Prince Consort's got a lot on his mind."

"Oh?" said Hartcliffe.

"Please, Bryan," said Angie Hartcliffe. "Hardy, I also heard that Queen Starsha is on the _Argo_."

"Queen Starsha?" cried Dawn. "Is she coming with us to Earth? Is it that bad that they're evacuating Iscandar?"

"No," said Hardy. "I heard they were in the VIP Lounge on the ship."

"Can we ask them what is up?" said Dawn.

"Yes," said Hardy. "If you care to get past two Space Marines with fixed bayonets."

"Oh," said Dawn.

* * *

**IV. A HORRID NIGHT**

**Planet R'Khelleva**

**The Temple Dungeons**

**Wednesday, March 10, 2207**

**2000 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

The clone of Yvona was screaming in horror and pain. 

She was in labor at last…in a place that resembled what she pictured one of the rooms of Hell as being like.

She had not seen Major Ginis for two days now, and she had new guards.

Her guards were cruel. They had come down to her cell one day at the bequest of a weird, twisted, bent little ancient poison dwarf of a woman named Aga.

Aga, it turned out, was the prison midwife. She was an ugly hag with bulging eyes and buck teeth who wore dirty clothes, smoked a cigar, and smelled like she was drunk.

Yvona had memories from her prior existence of having given birth to her son Samuel, years ago in a Catholic hospital. Although it had been a hard labor, and she remembered wearing only a dirty hospital gown, and then had gone naked towards the end of her labor, the doctors and nurses and midwife had tried to make it as pleasant for her as possible in the labor suite she had lain in.

This time, when Aga felt her and muttered, "it is your time", the dirty sackcloth serape she had again been reduced to had been unceremoniously torn off, and she had been handcuffed and marched barefoot and stark naked down to the filthiest part of the prison dungeons, illuminated only by torches and by the hot sun that came through an open, barred window. Yvona swore that invisible Things with glowing red eyes drifted outside the cell, leering and her and laughing at her.

Or was she finally being driven mad by the conditions here on the polluted, withered, dying planet of R'Khelleva? This was a planet where even the air stank on some days.

Then, as she had struggled, her gorilla-like guards had handcuffed Yvona's clone to a cot where the springs were covered only by a filthy mattress that stank with unspeakable smells and was horribly stained. And, worst of all, she was given absolutely no covering, not even a sheet over her desperately sweaty body.

Yvona had nothing to push against with her bare feet but the filthy, dirt-covered floor. The two gorilla-like R'Khell guards laughed at her and denied her food and water, and Aga was the only "doctor", feeling her every now and then with dirty, claw-like hands as Yvona looked at the sick surroundings. Torches. Hot sun coming through the window during the day, cold winds at night.

And, skeletons were lying in a heap on the floor.

There were three of them; Yvona guessed they had belonged to other "patients" who had suffered in this house of lamentation and never came out. One of the skeletons was obviously that of a baby. Roaches and worms crawled among the bones.

And, roaches crawled even on Yvona's body, which alternated between sweats and uncontrollable shivering as her labor pains came and intensified in this weird house of pain. Luckily, part of Yvona's power was currently working overtime to repel the micro-organisms that would otherwise have given her a fatal infefction or puerpural fever in this place and thus lead to her death in childbirth, which Ekogaru seemed to be aiming for. _You never appreciate antispepsis until you go through something like this in a barbaric place where they do not seem to klnow of the concept_, thought Yvona.

Yvona also coughed a great deal, because Aga insisted upon smoking smelly cigars as she worked on the laboring mother.

"Do you want relief for the pain?" hissed Aga as she puffed on her cigar. "Or should I cast a spell to help with this pain? Do you deserve relief, though?"

"I have been down here how long and you gave me none?"

"You have lain here in your sweat and filth for twenty-one hours, whore!" cackled Aga."Birth is hard. Ekogaru saith that all women in birth must suffer humiliation and pain for daring to bring squirming lives into a sick world. We make it harder in prison, witch! You suffer because it is the will of Ekogaru you _suffer_!"

"Well, where is he?" raged Yvona. "He made me like this, let him stand before me and watch our son being born, God damn him!"

"You be careful what you ask for!" yelled one of the guards as he spat on her. "Otherwise, he will deliver it."

"SHOW UP HERE, EKOGARU!" raged Yvona as a bad labor pain hit her, and outside, a stroke of lightning came as it began to rain. Over the thunder, Yvona yelled, "EKOGARU, SHOW YOURSELF!"

The midwife and guards laughed at her as a black cloud appeared at once in the room and a wave of cold blew over Yvona's exposed, filthy form. There was no medication. No soothing hand. No one to tenderly bathe her straining, sweaty, smelly body with a sponge. There was also no one to massage the birth area with oil. Not even any water to drink or ice to suck on.

Yvona then hissed in hatred as a familiar face leered at her as Stovall's body appeared, glowing with red, demonic eyes as the Dark Lord had taken a very dominant control of him.

"Greetings, wife," said Ekogaru. "How do you like your nursery?"

"I HATE IT, AND I HATE YOU!" screamed Yvona as lightning and thunder went off outside.

"Good, good," hissed Ekogaru. "Fill this room with your _hate_, and fill this child of ours with your hate!"

Another labor pain came and Yvona screamed like an animal.

Ekogaru just laughed at her. "I thought you'd be stronger than that, Yvona! Or has your _new_ God forsaken you? Where is the heavenly host, Yvona? Tell me _that_!"

A cold rain blew into the room and spattered all over Yvona's body, cleansing her a little of the sweat and dirt and insects as Ekogaru said, "Aga, give her the _D'lakis_ now. She needs a stimulant and relief from a little of that pain or she will die. I don't know if I want her dying quite yet. You may have taken this too far."

"Let me withold it a little longer, Lord," cackled Aga. "Or give her a cigar to smoke."

Ekogaru struck the crone hard with a leg bone he picked up off the floor. "Do it, or I kill you!" roared Ekogaru.

"Yes, yesss, masssster," said Aga. "A little pain relief for the great precious one, eh?" she said as she rooted through the bag she had brought. She pulled out two skins, one of water, which she used to clean some ugly-looking metal instruments, and then one skin that she threw to Ekogaru. "Give her that. The little brat's head will emerge. I will soon tear it out of her and end this display of emotion. Why do the Earthers cry so much? She is not like us. She is weak. Weak things like her should die and join the other bones on the floor of sluts who did not survive their birth pangs."

Ekogaru forced Yvona to drink from the wineskin.

The brew hit Yvona's throat like liquid fire, and it burned all the way down as she coughed and screamed while Aga coughed and laughed at her and rattled something that looked like some mad shaman's rattle. But, when she came out of the near-swoon the sick brew had put her into, she felt stronger, more invigorated, and the lower half of her body felt semi-numb.

More pains came a moment later as Yvona felt Aga cutting her, and then felt pulling and agony as the old witch cackled and peeped and muttered and worked with metal instruments that clinked and made horrid noises.

Ekogaru looked at her birth area as a head, between silvery metal forceps, came out of Yvona. Then, he screamed something in R'Khesh that not even Yvona could make out, and weird cheers, hoarse singing, and the banging of gongs began to ring through the prison as lightning flashed outside and thunder roared.

The guards began to clap their hands and stamp their feet and sing something primitive that sounded like "agaagahagahagahagahagaalgahaiiiiblaiiiii!"

The stomping continued as Ekogaru screamed at her, "PUSH, WOMAN! PUSH AND LET MY MASTERPIECE LIVE!"

Yvona was slapped across the face by Ekogaru to help as she finally lost her reserve and bit him. He only cuffed her about the head and laughed like a monster as a naked baby boy came from her. A moment later, Yvona and the baby were baptized with a bucket of icy cold water that a guard had brought in as the child began to squall and scream.

Yvona screamed when she saw her child's face.

It looked like an Earth child, save for two things.

The child had been born with a pointed, single tooth in his mouth, and his eyes glowed red.

Yvona saw the guards and Aga roughly tie off the umbilical cord and then, Ekogaru cut it with a dagger.

"My son, ERUGAR!" screamed Ekogaru as he held the baby up. "Look at my demon of a son! The Darkness has created unto me a great light! My boy! My _beast!_ My false prophet!"

The guards laughed and Aga cackled as she made Yvona smoke the cigar that had just been in her mouth.

"My son lives," hissed Ekogaru. Then, he turned to Aga and gave her his dagger. "Now kill the mother."

"What?" screamed Aga. "My Lord, every baby needs the milk and arms of his mother. Even your son, Lordship!"

"Kill her and give the little brat to a wet nurse. He will not need to be coddled for long. And Yvona has shown that she has forfeited her right to further life. I made her as a clone, and I can break her! I can someday make another clone of her that will be more cruel and stronger than this rebellious soulless failure that thinks it can think for itself."

"YOU WILL NEVER DO THAT!" screamed Yvona as the thunder roared outside. She had delivered the afterbirth, and Aga was clothing her birth area with rags and some kind of improvised loincloth to absorb the fluids and wastes.

Ekogaru leered at Yvona and caressed her throat with a poisoned dagger. "One cut, and that ends your stinking, miserable existence, Thing I made in a tank with no soul, Thing that has outlived its usefulness unto me, Thing that I divorce, I divorce, I DIVORCE at this moment. Die, former wife. Die, THING."

Yvona, in desperation, lashed out at Ekogaru with her mind as her eyes rolled up.

Ekogaru himself screamed in pain and went down to his knees as he felt the onslaught of Yvona's psi-powers.

Yvona then popped open the handcuffs with her mind and grabbed her son out of Ekogaru's arms. She put the Thing to her breast as it cried its unnatural deep cries. The guards backed away as the baby then took a breath and snarled at them.

"Good, good," purred Ekogaru. "You earned the right to live, wife. Now, take our son, _bitch_, and teach him how to fight! I reverse the divorce. I think we shall make a happy family, the three of us. Guards, free her from prison and put them in Aganna House within the hour. Carry her if she cannot walk."

"My Abomination will be growing, and fast," said Ekogaru as he bowed mockingly to Yvona. "He will be exceptional, and you and he will work together in the next few months with him. Your job….will be…to kill together. Are we clear on this?"

"I will teach him to fight, Ekogaru," hissed Yvona as the guards lifted her and the baby onto a stretcher and clothed their nakedness at last with a blanket in bright red. "But, be wary. He could take your place."

"Good!" laughed Ekogaru. "LET HIM TRY!" he screamed as he disappeared in a puff of sulfur.

"Take her to Aganna House, residence of the Priests," hissed Aga as she puffed at her cigar. "She is now free from this prison. Make sure the keepers feed her and help her care for the Thing. Although, maybe, he will not need our care for as long as we think…"

The guards laughed at that, and Yvona shivered, wondering what sort of evil they meant. The Child's deep, guttural, almost growling cries and the intensity of his gaze in his reddish-brown eyes even scared the R'Khells, as they wondered what sort of Thing Yvona had given birth to.

Stovall returned to his ship a few minutes later, weirded out a great deal by the sick scene as Ekogaru left him.

He leaned over the rail and looked out into the China Sea in the night as he coughed, and then gasped.

A moment later, the Marine did the most natural thing a mere human could do.

He threw up in the ocean.

What he had seen on R'Khell had been the sickest scene he had ever seen in his life.

And, somewhere far away, he knew that Ekogaru was just laughing at him.

* * *

**V. A STRANGE CHILD**

**Planet R'Khelleva**

**Aganna House**

**Sunday, March 14, 2207**

**1300 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

"By all that is holy," muttered Yvona four days later as she put Erugar, clad in just a diaper, up to her naked breast for the last time in her apartments in the priests' house as she sat almost nude on a couch nursing him. Her breasts hurt, and she was in pain all over, but part of her loved her son, and feared him at the same time "You are a strange child…" 

"He grows quickly," said Aga as she watched Yvona giving milk to the child and then feeding him solid pureed baby food from a bowl, which he took more eagerly. "In four days, he is now about more than one year old for a normal baby."

"He is not normal," said a trembling Major Ginis as he watched Yvona withdraw the child from her breast and then cover herself (with relief) with a short dress. For four days, Yvona had worn only a few rags around her crotch because the Abomination had been at her breast so much, sucking what seemed to be both milk and part of her life force from her. "By God, this child is an Abomination."

Erugar's eyes had stopped glowing, but he now had a full head of hair and a strange little crinkled face. He also followed his mother's eyes with an unusual intelligence and maliciousness.

Ginis asked, "Has his…father..been back?"

"Heavens, no," said Yvona. "I am grateful for that. But I do not know when he will stop growing at such a bizarre rate. He has fevers, he often trembles, he looks at you strangely…"

"Strangely," said Erugar in an unnaturally deep voice as he smiled. That shocked everyone more. "I am a rather strange child," he lisped. "And killing me is not truly on your agenda."

"I did not think," said Aga.

"Do not worry. I can read thine thoughts," said Erugar. "You meant to kill me. It will not succeed. Father does not want it. And, Mother, stop feeding me this accursed ground-up baby rot."

"You don't have all of your teeth in yet!" said Yvona.

"When they come in, I desire meat," whispered Erugar. "_Raw_ meat. As bloody as possible."

Yvona, Aga, and Ginis looked at each other. What would the Child do next?

* * *

At about the same time, a meeting was taking place on the _Argo_ on Iscandar. 

Commodore Derek Wildstar was sitting in the ship's VIP Quarters at a table across from his brother, Prince-Consort Alex Wildstar of Iscandar.

"I told you, Derek, about everything that has been going on here on Iscandar. I showed you the latest place where they attacked us."

"Yes," said Derek in a quiet voice.

"That's why I finally convinced Starsha, in February, that we needed more military forces on Iscandar. I spent a few days on Gamilon speaking with Desslok and the High Command, and they will send more fighter planes and destroyers. Logic dictates that Earth needs protection for its scientific colony on New Fiji Island, so…."

"You're heading home with us to ask the Earth Defense Council for more fighter squadrons?"

"Yes, Derek. If all goes well, I anticipate being back home in a few weeks, possibly with the Earth ship ferrying the planes here. How is Earth set for ships?"

"The Defense Fleet has been undergoing a great expansion," said Derek. "After Melezart, it seems obvious that Invidia is going to attempt a decisive battle somewhere. We have to be ready for that. And when I was on Gamilon yesterday, Desslok saw it the same way."

"Desslok has been a fine ally," sighed Alex. "I never thought I'd be saying that since my being taken prisoner by the Gamilons years ago led to my being here, but…"

"Things change," said Derek.

Alex looked at his wrist chrono. "I'm packed," he said. "Starsha will be aboard in a few minutes to wish me goodbye and good luck on my trip to Earth. Earth. It will be strange seeing it again after so many years. What is it like now, Derek?"

"Largely rebuilt, thanks to the Cosmo-DNA, although there are still some spots in desolate areas where you can see the craters from the planet bombs; being covered over by new plant growth. The Tokyo Megalopolis has taken damage from the First Cometine War, the Rikashan War and this war we are in now but the damage is repaired every time. Chicago was destroyed during the Rikashan War, but even that is in the midst of being rebuilt. I heard work crews have even gone into the ruins of New York to begin identifying the dead and cleaning up the site to rebuild the city at some point in the next year or two. Earth is like an old boxer, Alex. We take shots, but we keep on coming back…"

Alex nodded and smiled sadly.

"Alex?" said a soft voice as the hatch to the VIP Quarters whizzed open.

"Starsha," said Alex as he hugged his elegant wife, the Queen of Iscandar. "I love you so much…"

"I know you do," she said. "Derek, before you leave with Alex, we need to see Nova. I have an answer to that request you had for me. I only want us there to discuss it."

Derek said, "Of course," not knowing what Starsha would do.

* * *

A few minutes later, Derek and Alex Wildstar and Queen Starsha were all looking at Nova, who continued to sleep in her pregnancy in her long-term sleep tube. 

"I considered your request, Derek, to see if we could revive Nova early so I could heal her and the babies," said Starsha in a sad, quiet voice. "I have the power to do so, but, after much thought and meditation, I have to refuse your request."

"What?" said a grief-stricken Derek. "I…_why_?"

"She sleeps now, and she will soon awaken. I have already foreseen that, if that helps you. She will also survive, and so will your children. However, the exact day of their birth is already foredestined. I have already seen that your children, Derek Wildstar, will be heroes someday, like their parents. They will do much to finally help you put an end to the malice of Ekogaru, in their day."

"Then, he….."

"That is right, Derek. He lives. He has even tried to come here to taunt me, to mock me, to try to whisper to me to surrender to Invidia. But, I have refused him. Our civilization is older than he. Iscandar does not listen to deranged upstarts who consort with powers and negative forces better left alone. And much is at stake here. If we awaken Nova too early, and she has your children early, victory against Invidia will not be assured. It will be hard, but you will need her then in the coming days. When what I have foreseen comes to pass…"

"Starsha?" said Alex. "What have you foreseen?"

"I cannot tell you," said Starsha as she sadly cast her eyes downward toward the deck. "But, great life will come from death. Hope will come from pain. And, I cannot wait until I see you again!" said Starsha as she threw her arms around Alex and wept. "Give our daughters our love on Earth, Alex. And, remember, I am waiting for you."

Alex kissed Queen Starsha, and then, she turned to go. "This will be the last I see of both of you for a while. Good sailing back to Earth."

Alex and Derek saluted the Queen as she turned to leave.

* * *

The _Argo_ left Iscandar a few hours later, cruising on the surface of her ocean at dusk on Iscandar as she gathered speed for takeoff, and, after liftoff, she was rapidly heading for the edge of the Sanzar System, warping back home the way she had come. 

Commodore Wildstar sat in a brooding silence as he watched the stars sweeping past. Alex had sought permission to come to the First Bridge, and he sat quietly in IQ-8.7's usual seat at Analysis as the _Argo_ sailed on through the Sea of Stars to the edge of what had been his home solar system for so many years.

_I have not seen Earth in almost eight years_, thought Alex. _I wonder what it is really like now?_

"All hands," said Derek a moment later over the intercom. "Secure for space warp. We are heading back to our station at Procyon VI. We will report to the Commander later on today after our first space warp. Two minutes to warp…"

Soon, the _Argo_ blasted into warp with a suddenness that impressed Alex. As they roared through hyperspace, Alex Wildstar thought, _This_ _ship…is evidence that Earh is really rebuilding. I'm sure that it will be a great world…and, thanks to Starsha for making it that way…I am so grateful, and so are all of us…_

* * *

**March 21, 2207…Planet R'Khelleva**

On R'Khelleva, Erugar now wore a full set of clothes (not much, just a shirt and torn shorts), and he walked around with a grin on his face as he held his mother's hand as she walked with him at the edge of a desert. The sands were hot and rough; Yvona felt an uncomfortable heat coming through her sandals; she was amazed at how this toddler went barefoot on this hot ground without its appearing to bother him one bit.

"I have to go to the desert soon, Mother," he said.

"Why?"

"Father says so," said Erugar. "We talk a lot, Father and I."

"I bet you do," said Yvona.

Erugar just laughed like a monster. Then, he did something that sickened even his mother.

The boy dropped his shorts, and urinated happily onto a dry bush without a thought of exposing himself. He was able to control his natural urges, but he just grinned as he made a display of his Call of Nature. He whistled when he was done.

"What are you doing?"

"I had to make water, Mother," hissed Erugar.

"You should not be so public about it. And put your damn pants back on!"

Erugar just wriggled his toes, whistled, and made a show of pulling up his shirt. He had decided to strip for a minute, but then he gave up and let down his shirt and pulled on his shorts again.

"Damnit, I can find better things to do," he said contemptuously. "Although it will be nice to see how it all works when I get older. And when I can get a harem of my very own. And chemical weapons. Please let me loose in the military labs, _Mati!_ I want to torture little furry animals."

"You are two years old!" yelled Yvona. "No one can be that sick!"

Erugar smiled and made a rock float up into the air with a raised hand. He made another one rise up, and then he put one rock on top of another. "_D'rakkh e'sneya, envaleta go_, (I am my father's boy)," he said in R'Khesh, and then added in English, "That means I am my father's child, Mother. I'll pick up Garumanic next. Just let me get at some books."

"You can read?"

"I started on R'Khesh pornography thanks to Aga, who thought it was funny hearing me read it out loud, then I began reading the Terran _Bible_ and the _Iliad_. I want to read my father's Scriptures and a military torture manual next. Torture is a nice way to learn math, by counting the digits one cuts off of a victim."

Then, he just laughed like a madman.

Yvona loved her strange son, but she was becoming frightened of him and the forces that brought him to this unnatural growth.

_Where does it stop?_ Yvona thought. _What sort of Abomination did Ekogaru and I let loose upon the universe?_

* * *

**VI. WAR IN CHINA**

**Planet Earth**

**Shantou, China**

**The Righteous Dragon Bar and Club**

**Thursday, April 9, 2207**

**1532 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Stovall was quickly finding that the hot, crowded Chinese port city of Shantou was another "armpit of the world." 

He was in a nasty, smelly port bar frequented by EDF sea and space sailors and Marines near the docks, drinking a lot of beer and waiting for the CO of his platoon to arrive. He was already buzzed, but he did not care.

Finally, another man came in and yelled, "Hey, Stovall, ya piece of crap!"

Stovall laughed hard when he saw the scarred face of another Space Marine. "Maples! Sir! How'd you get to be a Lieutenant?"

"Simple, I stayed in the Space School," laughed Lieutenant Gary Maples, an old classmate of Stovall's, and another "good old boy" from Oklahoma. He had also been one of Wakefield's tormentors during plebe year, but, unlike Stovall, this man had graduated and became an officer. Although he was no gentleman. "Your plan to piss off Wakefield was stupid, but it had its merits. You got screwed, buddy."

"Ahhh…I realize that now. How could I have shot myself in the foot like that?"

"Hell, you can frag some officer, take over his platoon, and get your bars back as a Mustang," whispered Maples. "Not me, buddy," he laughed as Stovall withdrew his combat knife and grinned. "Will buyin' ya a beer help out?"

"Sure will," said Stovall. A moment later, Maples came back with two bottles of Shantung. "I read the ops report for the place we're goin' to. Apparently, there's this mountain stronghold of the enemy's in way southern Yunnan Province. It's called Honghe Prefecture, in the Ailoshan Mountains. Tropical wasteland. Jungles. Tribespeople. Weird wildlife. The Josiahites are hanging out in that crappy place somewhere, and they want us to root 'em out."

"Sounds like fun," said Stovall as he drank his beer. He looked up a minute later and snarled at a man in EDF blues leaning against a table. He had a flight jacket on over his EDF blues, heedless of the sticky heat in the bar as overhead fans turned over the tables and the bar. The unit patch on his flight jacket indicated that he was one of the Red Vipers, currently serving on the EDF spacecraft carrier _Wasp_, which was making a port call in Shantou to pick up some planes.

"Well, space jockey," snapped Maples. "What the hell do you want?"

"You guys are talking too damn loud," snapped the pilot. "Me and my buddies were tryin' to play poker here at the next table, jackass!" At that, four more pilots, two male, and two female, came up and looked daggers at the dirty-looking Space Marines.

"Did I hear ya right?" said Stovall. "Ya called me a jackass, flyboy?"

"He did," said one of the young ladies, a pilot who was about 5'6", with brown hair and blonde bangs. "You interrupted our poker game, jerks!" She made Stovall stop in his tracks for a moment.

"Dawn?" he said. "Whazza you doin' here?"

"Dawn who?" she snapped back. "My name is Lieutenant Gabrielle Capistrano of the Red Vipers. And you're _drunk!_"

"Bangs, leave the jackass to us," snapped the biggest male pilot.

"I resent bein' called a jackass!" yelled Stovall.

"Sergeant, 'jackass' and 'Marine' mean the same thing," said the other young lady in a prim voice. "Shut the hell up before we have to teach you a lesson."

"Way to go, Nikki!" said Capistrano as she laughed, with her olive Mexican complexion looking rather sultry in the dim light of the bar. She was tough, but she was attractive.

"Ensign Parker," said the older male pilot to the younger girl. "Step aside. This may get ugly. I'm about to teach these assholes a lesson!"

"Yeah, teacher? Ya gonna do the teaching?" snapped Stovall as Maples laughed his ass off and downed some more beer.

"_Shut up,"_ said the lead pilot as he shoved Stovall's shoulder.

Stovall got up, snarled, and took a good swing at him.

The pilot wheeled back, but he was hit over the head by Maples a moment later as the Marine officer broke a chair over his head.

Another pilot dove in, but Stovall kicked him aside and grabbed Parker, who fought hard as she kicked at Stovall's unpolished boots.

"Little spitfire, aint ya?" sneered Stovall. "Feisty, just the way I like 'em!"

Stovall then punched the young woman square in the mouth. She fell back stunned with a bleeding mouth.

"You _son-of-a-bitch_!" yelled another one of the pilots as he jumped at Stovall. Stovall got him below the belt with a knee while Maples swung at another pilot with his combat knife.

"No weapons! No WEAPONS!" yelled one of the Chinese bartenders as he ran in. "You cut the crap or I call the shore patrol on your butts!"

Another Marine came up behind the bartender and slugged him in the back of the neck as he smiled at Maples while "Bangs" circled the area, looking for a chance to pay back Stovall for hitting Parker.

"Nice job, Corporal Wiseman," said Maples. "Wiseman, meet our new exec, Sarge Stovall. He's the one with the pool cue stick."

Stovall was using a broken cue stick as a club, and he smashed another pilot in the head and then poured someone's beer on him as he laughed.

"Sir, he's messed up," muttered Wiseman.

"So what?" laughed Maples. "The guy can fight."

Stovall then swung at another pilot from another squadron, who ducked, reared up, and knocked him hard in one ear.

Then, Capistrano screamed, and she jumped onto Stovall's back, screaming, "DROP DEAD, STOVALL!" while punching him several times like a jackhammer in the head and neck and then jumping off and giving him a kick in the behind before the other pilot (an Ensign Harrison from the Green Hornets) jumped back in and socked Stovall square in the mouth, making the pilots cheer as he gave the ugly Marine a bloody mouth.

Stovall, reeling from the punch, slashed out with his combat knife and cut a gash in the screaming pilot's cheek while Maples strangled another pilot into unconsciousness.

As the whole bar erupted into a brawl between sailors, naval aviators, and Marines, Stovall smashed Harrison's head into the table, knocked him out, and then took Maples' suggestion to duck out a back exit into an alley, even as Capistrano tried to trip them, screaming, "Come back here, you Goddamned _cowards_! You started it, you finish it!"

Soon, most of the 255th was on its way out, laughing their butts off at the riot that they had caused. The melee was so thick that none of them ever got arrested for it.

* * *

**VII. HOMECOMING**

**The Vicinity of Procyon VI**

**Thursday, April 9, 2207**

**2031 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

The _Argo_ drifted in space beside the space battleship _Jordan_, where Commodore Wildstar was meeting with Mahmoud Algir, the Captain of the _Jordan_, in his cabin. 

"All right," said Captain Algir. "We have our orders, our intel report from you, Wildstar, and a briefing report. My Blue Giants Flight Group have just assumed our fighter cover over us as the Black Tigers have come in, right?"

"They have," said Wildstar as he sat facing him in his chair. "We will be handing this sector over to you when we receive our word from…"

A tap came at Wildstar's cabin hatch. "Come in," said Derek.

Domon entered, and popped a salute. He had been serving as Officer of the Deck until just a few minutes ago. "Captain, this came from Earth. Homer decoded it."

Wildstar took the note and read it. "All right, Captain Algir," said Wildstar as Algir saw his eyes were misting slightly. "Word from the Commander. You are to assume your patrol station at 2130."

"As for you?" said Algir.

"The Star Force is now officially relieved. Our deployment is over; we've been cleared to go home…"

Domon smiled as Derek got up and shook Captain Algir's hand. "Good hunting, Captain Algir."

"And, may Allah protect and bless you on your voyage home, Commodore Wildstar," said Algir in a quiet tone of voice.

"Thank you, Captain. I'm sure He will."

As Algir waited, Derek thumbed the button on his microphone and said, "Attention, all hands. We have been released from our deployment at last by order of Commanding General Singleton. At 2130 Hours, we will leave the sector and begin our journey home. I anticipate that we will be back on Earth by the 19th or the 20th. We have a few ports of call to make, but I anticipate an opportunity where you will be able to contact your families. We will discuss this later. All of you have been a fine crew, and it has been a pleasure serving with you for so long. We've been through a lot together, everyone. But, we are still at war. It is not over yet."

And, at that, Derek put his mike back in its stand.

_Nova_, he thought. _I can't wait to see you again. Please, by God, I hope you will pull through this all right…_

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


	3. Chapter 3

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—RADNAR'S GAME**

**Being the sixth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

* * *

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---_Freddo_

* * *

**ACT THREE: HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL**

* * *

**I. MORE HOMECOMINGS**

**Space Battleship _Arizona_**

**The Vicinity of Sirius**

**April 10, 2207**

**1521 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

At this hour of the day, Lieutenant Deke Wakefield was not flying. 

Instead, he was sighing to himself as he worked on some of the paperwork that now occupied his time as a Squadron Leader of the Sun Tigers. He had never known until recently how much paperwork a squadron leader had to maintain for a Flight Group Leader.

Daily maintenance reports on planes. Readiness reports on the eleven pilots in his squadron. Action and patrol reports.

Deke was digging into an action report from an Ensign Caraba in his squadron from today's patrol (No Contacts, No Incidents) when Brew showed up.

"Yeah?" said Deke as he paused and began beating a tattoo on his desk with his drumsticks.

"I'm not here to discuss paperwork, Dekesticks."

"What are ya here to discuss?" asked Wakefield as he took a sip of his coffee. Aliscea made it better than Nova ever had, but at times like this, Wakefield was beginning to _miss_ Mrs. Wildstar's eternally strong Navy Brew.

"Squirrels," said Brew with a wide grin.

"I was afraid of that," replied Deke. "What's your squirrel question?"

"Deke, you're still acting like you've got two squirrels. Namely, Dawn and Sasha."

"I'm thinking of Dawn as just a friend…I think," said Deke. "When we get home later this month, I was hoping to take a month's leave. I wanted to spend some time in San Diego patching things up with Dawn to see if maybe we can just be friends."

"Did she ever answer that e-mail you sent her back in November after Nova went into her tube? You know, the one Aliscea told you to write?"

"No. I don't even know if it reached her or not."

"Have any idea where she is, Deke?"

"No, cuz. I wrote to Lynn in December and never got back a response. Now, that was weird."

"OK, what about Sasha?"

Deke sighed deeply at that. "I've been writing to her."

"Is she still your girlfriend?"

"I guess so."

"Sticks, what kind of answer is that?"

"I haven't seen her in months. I don't know where our relationship is going or what we'll be doing next or how long this war will last. After our leave, we could be back out there again for another one or two years. We don't know shit, Brew."

"Do ya think you have a future with her?"

"I guess we do. But I'm not sure how, or what, or where, or when."

"Do you _want_ to have a future with her, Deke?"

"Yes, I want to. But will I? I don't know yet. I'm not Iscandarian and able to see the damn future, Brew. And neither is she." However, as soon as Deke said this, a weird shiver went up his spine. A crazy thought came to his mind. _How do I know that? There is so much about Sasha I do not even know yet. I've never met her parents, never seen or heard about where she comes from, and she has this weird flashes of insight…she can't be Iscandarian, but…how do I know that? And why am I even thinking this? This is so weird. But…_

"..she's a mystery girl, Brew. I wish I could get into this mystery, find out more about her, and…"

"You can see her at the Academy when we get home," said Brew.

"But, Dawn…she's this ghost. A ghost in my past. I have to get rid of this ghost, before…"

"Before you can be with Sasha? Deke, Sasha is gorgeous! She's crazy about you, man! You last saw Dawn almost five years ago and you have no idea what she's like now, Sticks! And you saw how brief that e-mail from Dawn was. _Two lines?_ Wake up and smell the coffee, cuz! She doesn't have any more feelings for you. None at all. Maybe she is carrying a torch, but probably not. Maybe Lynn didn't write back because she's gotten enough sense to stay out of this. Maybe Dawn will tell you she never wants to see you again, and you can make a clean break, go on living…"

"Yeah," said Deke. "Maybe I need to do that. But can I?"

"Man," said Brew. "When you get like this….you're just plain impossible."

* * *

**II. ERUGAR GROWS IN MALICE AND DISGRACE**

**Planet R'Khelleva**

**April 11, 2207**

**1000 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Yvona was both shocked and disgusted at her strange son. 

Erugar's bizarre growth continued.

The evil little child was now the equivalent of about nine or ten years old, and Yvona watched as the loincloth-clad boy fought a far stronger and older R'Khell warrior in a sword duel.

The R'Khell, who was in his late twenties, was losing rapidly to the child as the boy evaded his defenses and cruelly slashed him over and over again.

_By Ekogaru,_ thought the exhausted, bleeding warrior as he fought the boy, _This_ _child is a demon in flesh. He is not remotely natural! He is not…_

The tall, bearded, loicloth-clad warrior evaded Erugar's defenses and stabbed towards his heart, angry enough at the Child to kill him now.

Erugar evaded death by centimeters, danced back on the balls of his feet, and he screamed as he reached in, used his sword to cut off the warrior's sword hand in a vicious slash that surprised even him, and then, finally, he ended it by jumping up with a scream, ramming his sword into the warrior's heart, and jumping onto his dying body and howling in triumph with his foot on his chest as the warrior bled out into the sand.

"I did it!" he screamed. "By all the powers, I did it!" laughed Erugar. "Second one I killed today! That one was a lieutenant with ten years' service! Mother, I have passed my tests! Major Ginis, I have killed two times in one day! I am good enough to be commissioned, now! Grant me my warrior's commission and rank!"

"I am not sure yet," said Ginis. "You are so young, and…"

"What more must I prove?" bellowed Erugar. "I killed one man with my mind and I ran this one through today in my trials. I have won! It is my father's command! _Commission_ me!"

"I do not know if you know your father's will on this," said a nervous Yvona as men took away the corpse of the R'Khell officer Erugar had slain.

"I KNOW HIS WILL!" roared Erugar as he reached out and began to strangle an old Colonel with his mind. "Dalvets, grant me my commission _now_, or I begin by killing you and then maybe not stop until I put the rest of the High Command in hell!"

Erugar smiled as Dalvets struggled to catch his breath while four R'Khell officers levelled their weapons at the near-naked boy. "Oh, are we trying _that_, now?" sneered Erugar. Erugar nodded, and one of the guards' ceremonial daggers flew up from its sheath and stabbed the warrior in the neck with a killing blow. Another one tried to fire, but the blaster exploded in his hand and turned him into a screaming human torch.

Dalvets fell to the ground and began to gasp his last breaths as a black, evil form appeared, and everyone who could still kneel knelt as Ekogaru manifested himself as a black spirit. Everyone knelt, that is, except Erugar.

"Hello, daddy," said Erugar with a smile. "Four dead today. And soon to be a fifth. Tell these idiots to grant me my rank and commission me."

"Son, you did well. Let Dalvets go so he _can_ live to commission you," replied Ekogaru.

A moment later, Dalvets was released so that Erugar could kick him. Ekogaru looked at him and said, "I think you have seen what Duke Erugar can do now, Colonel. I create my son as a Duke of the R'Khell Union this minute. You will grant him a uniform and ceremonial dagger and commission him as a Lieutenant tomorrow morning at sunrise, and I care not how freakish it seems, it is my command! Do so, for I have need of him. I will be here, at this spot, at sunrise. Do NOT defy me, people!"

"Yes, Lordship," said Dalvets.

* * *

Sunrise came the next day. Yvona looked sickened as much of the R'Khell High Command stood at attention on the darkened desert plain in the day's first light as the sun began to rise. 

Erugar, her son, strode forward fully clad at last in the red and black uniform, cloak, and boots of a R'Khell Lieutenant.

Erugar smiled in silence as he knelt before a silent Dalvets, who pinned the rank pips of a Lieutenant on the boy's epaulets and then blessed him with a very reluctant double-kiss of peace as he welcomed the evil young noble into the Order of R'Khell warriors. He handed Erugar a dagger, that the new officer put into a sheath near his left shoulder.

Another warrior handed Erugar a blaster as the boy took it and fired it once into the air. "Warriors!" he roared. "Recognize me now as a commander! I have plans for you and for Earth! I…"

"Not yet, son," said Ekogaru as he appeared before the crowd, this time in the body of Stovall. The group trembled and knelt as they heard the hated but familiar voice of the wrathful "god" who kept them enslaved in fanaticism and hatred. "I have commissioned you, boy. But you have yet to pass _my _trials. I send you now on a _R'jkharraz_ Ordeal to prove and test your psionic powers and devotion to me, lad. You leave at once. If you _live_, you will be clad in the black robes of one of my warrior priests upon your return."

"What do I take with me?" said Erugar.

"Only the dagger I granted you. Yvona, strip him of _everything else_."

"What?" said Erugar as Yvona smiled and embraced her son as she began to undress him out of his uniform.

"You will find clothes in the desert," said Ekogaru as he smiled while Yvona pulled off the boy's dress tunic and undershirt, and then, with a little grin, opened his pants and pulled them down with his underwear while the others laughed at him. "Besides, I have pleasures to teach you, as well, should you survive," said Ekogaru as Yvona freed the struggling Child from his uniform and boots. "When she is done, kneel before me," said Ekogaru. "I have to extend upon you my blessing."

When Yvona was done, she smiled at Erugar and spanked him once on his bare bottom as everyone laughed at him. Then, she shoved him towards his father. Finally, Erugar stood totally naked before the group. He slowly knelt before his Dark Lord as everyone went silent. "My son, in whom I am well-pleased, go now on your Ordeal. Give him a single skin of water, Ginis. Return not, Erugar, until you return hence as a man. GO!"

Erugar took the skin of water from Ginis, slung it over his bare shoulder, and then he kissed his mother goodbye as he walked off naked into the desert without looking at anyone else.

"I hope he does not survive," said Dalvets in a near-whisper to Yvona.

"I hate to say this, but part of me agrees with you," said Yvona.

* * *

Five days passed in the hot Great Desert of R'Khelleva. The Terran date was now April 17, 2207. 

Erugar stumbled about, sunburned from his sweat-matted long-haired head down to his cut and bleeding toes as he adjusted the rough loincloth and belt he had made from the skin of an animal he had slain, tanned, and eaten his first day. Some of its jerked flesh still sustained him in a small bag he wore at one of his near-naked hips.

The child looked wild now. He was now the rough equivalent of fourteen years of age, and his hair had grown long, and he had began to sprout body hair in the fashion of a teenager. He also had begun to grow a beard, a sign that he was approaching manhood in the warrior culture of the R'Khells.

He ate some jerked meat, but he was still hungry as he staggered in the heat, and sat down gasping in some sand near a group of rocks.

He looked up, not at all surprised when Ekogaru stood in the desert before him.

"Hello, son. You live."

"No thanks to you, father, eating the dried flesh of these rabbit-like _Vellats_ and drinking the blood of these reptilian _K'Rattzim_ to live. I eat the refuse of the desert, father. I want more. I want bread! I want a banquet!"

"If you are my son," said Ekogaru. "You can make yourself bread. Turn these stones into bread, child. That is your first test."

Erugar smiled, shut his eyes, and picked up a stone. He muttered some words, and then confidently bit into the stone, smiling as he realized he was chewing a warm hunk of fresh bread, and not breaking his teeth upon stone.

"Good," said Ekogaru. "Eat well, son. Turn that rock into a wine goblet, and turn that one into steak. Eat, and have thine fill. You will need it today for your next test."

Erugar laughed with his demonic father as he prepared for his next test.

* * *

A while later, Erugar stood in his ragged loincloth on the pinnacle of the Temple of Ekogaru in the R'Khell capital as crowds of priests and their victims and acolytes offered sacrifices to a great statue of Ekogaru whose feet stood enshrined in flames as victims were always burned to him in a great bowl of fire before his feet. 

Erugar smiled as he watched a young naked woman being tied up as she wept. The evil priests of Ekogaru stood calling their chants to the Dark Lord as she was cast onto the altar before the bowl of fire and had her throat cut as she screamed and her screams then turned into dying gurgles. Then, she was consigned to the flames at the Image's feet even as she died in the fire and the musicians blew horns and banged on gongs.

"Now, Erugar," whispered Ekogaru. "If you are my son, cast yourself down into the courtyard. NOW."

"I'll die," whispered Erugar.

"Fear not," said Ekogaru. "My demons will stop your descent and catch you. Then, they will worship you after you pass your final test."

"Which will be?"

"Prostrate yourself before my Image and worship me," said Ekogaru. "I am your God. No one else."

Ekogaru vanished as Erugar shut his eyes and threw himself off the pinnacle of the R'Khell Temple.

He expected to die, but he stopped before he hit the stones as he felt himself held up by cold, invisible hands as he floated in the air with his hands out before the altar.

The worship stopped as everyone clapped their hands and knelt.

"Ekogaru's son!" screamed one priest.

"We are visited!" screamed another one.

"A god is among us!" yelled another man.

"O, son of Ekogaru!" cried another priest as he helped the boy to the ground and kissed him.

Among the claps and cheers of the crowd, Erugar knelt and then prostrated himself on the ground before the monstrous Image of Ekogaru. "I am his son!" he screamed. "But he gave me life and let me live! Worship him now! Worship and serve him, and him alone! He is verily a god!"

And, invisble as he was, Ekogaru smiled as his evil son whipped the crowd into a frenzy.

_His preparation is complete,_ thought the Dark Lord. _Now, later on, I shall reward him. He has earned it._

* * *

A day later, Erugar returned home to his mother. 

Erugar came in, wearing a fur-lined cloak, a fine loincloth, fine sandals, and carrying a bag of money. "Mother, here is some swag I stole. Half of it is yours."

"I heard about you at the Temple," said Yvona. "I heard all about your devotion to Ekogaru and your miracles."

"Are you proud, Mother?" laughed Erugar.

"I am sickened. By God, you played those deluded people like a violin. All the R'Khell Union now calls you their new Messiah, the Son of Ekogaru. You do _nothing_ in a small way."

"Are you not proud? I made a banquet for them."

"That was sick."

"I called fire from heaven."

"Even sicker."

"Father then let me rob an Outcast woman in the desert, strip her of her clothes, rape her, and then kill her. My first woman, at last. Pity he didn't let me let her live. I would have made her fat with child."

"Don't you realize where you are getting all this power from?" whispered Yvona. "Someone who owns your soul. And he will collect at the end."

"Why is that so bad?" laughed Erugar.

"If you do not realize why, then there is nothing I can do for you," said Yvona. "God have mercy upon your rotten soul."

Erugar only laughed at that as he gave silver and gold to his mother, and wondered why she refused it.

* * *

**III. THE GREAT SUMMONS**

**Space Battleship _Arizona_**

**The Vicinity of Sirius**

**April 18, 2207**

**1415 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

As the _Arizona_ drifted in space beside the EDF carrier _Courageous_, everyone on the _Arizona_'_s_ First Bridge was expecting it when Commanding General Singleton called them on the video panel. 

"Captain Venture," he said.

"Yessir?" said Venture.

Singleton smiled and then said, "When you finish your rendezvous with the _Courageous_, make your way out of the Sirius System and begin heading for home. The Second Star Force is now released from its deployment. You can come home."

Mark nodded at the Commander and said, "Thank you, sir. We will be back on Earth in just a few days."

"We cannot wait to see you," said the Commander as he saluted. "You have done a great job."

"Thank you," said Venture.

* * *

Later that day, at sixteen hundred on the nose, Conroy called together all of the Sun Tigers as the _Courageous_ left. 

"I don't know what you have heard," said Conroy. "I mean, what you have heard in the way of scuttlebutt. I am making it official. We are warping away from here in an hour. Our destination; the solar system. Guys, gals, we're goin…"

His last word was blocked out as everyone clapped their hands and some pilots got up and hugged each other. Finally, Conroy barked, "Our deployment's over! We're goin' _home!_ We should be back on Earth in about nine days, give or take a few hours."

_Home,_ thought Wakefield. _Home at last. Why do I feel like one chapter of my life is about to end, and another one is about to begin? What will I say to Sasha when I see her next? What can I say? And what's going to happen to Dawn? I'm out of one unknown, and into a new unknown. Why am I so damn confused?_

* * *

**April 19, 2207….1600 Hours, Earthtime**

At roughly the same time, another EDF space battleship cruised majesticially into the Pluto orbit.

The _Argo_ was finally back in her home star system, and she would be home tomorrow. The deployment would soon be over with.

In the wardroom, Jefferson Hardy took a deep swallow as he adjusted the collar on his peacoat and sat at a table and waited for Dawn.

The young woman came in a moment later, in one of her Medical minidresses with boots, looking very perky and happy as she whistled to herself.

"Dawn?" said Hardy.

"You said we were to meet for dinner? It's our last dinner on this ship before we get home tomorrow morning, you know. I'm going to have a long day tomorrow at the hospital. I hate to rush, but I don't know when I'll see you again, or when we can get together again during our leave, and…"

"Ah know," said Hardy. He grabbed Dawn's hands and turned very serious for a moment. "I have somethin' to ask you. It's very important."

"What?" said Dawn as Hardy smiled at her and looked into her eyes through the single deep brown eye she could see beneath his hair.

Hardy smiled, let go of Dawn's hands, and slowly produced a small box from the inner pocket of his peacoat. "Ah asked you yoah ring size yestuday for a reason, Dawn. This was meant for Mio Hoshiyama, and I never got to give it to her. She was killed around this time five years ago by the Technomugar after they took her prisoner. I hope you don't mind if we rebaptize this for you. I had Sandor resize it."

He slowly opened the small box and Dawn's eyes went wide as she looked at a small silver and gold ring with a solitaire diamond on it. It looked like a engagement ring.

"Is that…what…I think it is?" said Dawn Westland as Hardy took the ring out of the box and slowly slid it onto her finger.

"It is," said Jefferson Hardy as he bowed his head. Then, he looked at Dawn and said, "Miss Dawn Westland, Lieutenant of the World Health Organization Nursin' Corps, would you accept this old pilot's proposal of matrimony?"

"I…uh….I…" said Dawn as she looked at the ring and smiled to herself. "I have to think about this a minute…it's…sort…of…sudden," said Dawn as she smiled.

"Dawn?" said Hardy as Dawn played with the ring. "I…uh…do you accept?"

"Still thinking," said Dawn.

"I…uh..er…"

"Figured it out," smiled Dawn as she looked Hardy right in the eyes. "Let me see both those eyes for once," she said as she brushed his hair back. Then, she smiled again and said, "Jeff…"

"Yes?"

"I accept your offer."

Then, she kissed him from across the table. They laughed together as Hardy said, "When do you want to get married?"

"As soon as possible," said Dawn.

Hardy's eyes widened. "On the ship?"

"No, silly," said Dawn. "I have plans to just elope and not tell my mother until after the fact. This is my plan, if you'll hear me out…"

"And it is?"

Dawn began to whisper her wedding plans to Hardy as she smiled and made him smile.

Hardy then thought, _I was so afraid of this moment…goin' better than ah ever thought it would. Hope our marriage goes the same way…_

* * *

**IV. FIRST MISSION**

**Planet R'Khelleva**

**Fleet Headquarters**

**April 19, 2207**

**1812 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

In a dark, lonely briefing room in the R'Khell capital, Yvona Josiah sat at the head of a table as Ekogaru's phantom appeared beside her. 

She bowed her head to the vile phantom as he said, "I see you and Commander Erugar have brought our agents here to my presence. Yvona, you will lead this mission as you leave tomorrow aboard the space submarine _D'Rotja_."

"The mission?" said Yvona.

"You and Erugar," said Ekogaru as he smiled towards his son, who was now in a black uniform. He now wore a full head of long dark hair and had a full, pointed beard. "You two are to lead a party of seven to perform an assassination, or, rather, assassinations, on Earth. The mission is important to both myself and to Princess Invidia of the Comet Empire. Three of you are Cometines. Rise and identify yourselves."

Two green men in Cometine uniforms and one Terran-looking Cometine stood as they bowed before Ekogaru. "Deglits, Major, Gatlantean Special Forces," said the man who looked like a Caucasian Earthling.

"Envar, Lieutenant, Gatlantean Special Forces."

"Ekar, Lieutenant, Gatlantean Special Forces."

"Fine, gentlemen," said Ekogaru. "Two of you are R'Khells. Bow to me and introduce yourselves."

"Lieutenant Shanda, Lord."

"Lieutenant Vaga, Lord," said a second, Rikashan-looking orange-skinned man as he bowed.

Ekogaru smiled and said, "And, you two, are Earthlings. Names!"

"Ivan Denisovitch Drachev, former Lieutenant, Earth Defense Forces."

A taller bearded Russian then stood and said, "Boris Vladmirovich Barinietsyn, former Lieutenant, EDF. I am under a death sentence on Earth, but…"

"It does not matter," said Ekogaru. "Your target, a few people that I foresee will be aboard a train on Earth in the next few weeks. The _New Orient Express_. Its route runs between Vienna and Vladivostok. I want you nine to infiltrate the train dressed like members of the crew. Infiltrate the train and kill some important Terrans as per my command. Remain unobtrusive until you can make your move. Understood?"

"Lordship, I wonder how I will do that with two green agents and one orange one…," said Yvona.

"We will have matters well in hand with a special makeup….," said Ekogaru. "Now, go…"

"At your command, we prepare to go," sighed Yvona.

"Good. Yvona, you are in command, My son is second in command. Go, and bring me Death."

Yvona bowed her head, wondering how, before God, she was going to get out of _this_ mission.

Especially with her own sick son watching her.

* * *

**V. THE SLEEPER AWAKES…**

**Planet Earth**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Sickbay**

**April 20, 2207**

**0800 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

On the _Argo_, which had just landed at a dock in the open in the Tokyo Megalopolis, Dawn Westland stood waiting in the Long-Term Sleep room with Hardy, Bryan Hartcliffe, IQ-8.7, Doctor Sane, Penny Akers, Sandor, Commodore Wildstar, and the Cleveland twins. 

Ensign Terrence Rogers had just been successfully awakened from his long-term sleep tube, and the Ensign was being helped into a transport litter capsule by Sandor, and Nurse Tasha Cleveland as he looked around, rather confused. "Hard to believe it's April already," he said. Transport litters contained their own atmosphere and sensors, but they did not have the equipment needed to transport a patient in suspension; hence, patients in long-term sleep customarily had to be awakened before being moved, since the larger long-term sleep tubes were not that easily moved, even though they could be ejected as lifeboats in emergencies.

"You're going to be fine," said Doctor Sane as he nodded to Tasha Cleveland. Tasha helped him lay down on the stretcher, where the capsule was closed, and Tasha and IQ 8.7 took him out at a run after nodding to Hartcliffe, who would be flying them to Central Hospital in one of the medical boats.

"Now, for the other one," said Doctor Sane. He walked over towards Nova's tube slowly while Samantha Cleveland and Dawn Westland brought up the litter.

"She's going to be weak and confused when we bring her around, Wildstar," said Sane. "We'll have to move as quickly as possible."

Derek nodded as Doctor Sane said, "Sensors show Nova's vitals and those of the babies are stable. Power stable. Begin initiation of suspension reversal. When she is brought around, she must be taken to Central Hospital ASAP."

"The hospital has been alerted?" said Dawn.

"They have an operating room ready," said Sane. "Wildstar, would you like to push the button?"

"Uh, which one?" said Derek as he looked at the panel.

"Right there," said Dawn.

Derek Wildstar pushed the button.

The lights on the panel went red, and the life signs disappeared.

A whirring and hissing noise sounded deep in the sleep tube as a gas passed into the tube.

Derek stood in silence as the gas passed over Nova's sleeping form. It obscured her from sight for a moment as several lights went on and off on the status panel.

A moment later, the lights on the status board went dark as a glow went through the gas for a moment. Then, the glow subsided, and the glass tube whirred open.

Derek looked in at Nova. Her eyelids were fluttering as she stretched and yawned a wide, deep yawn.

She opened her eyes and looked around. "Derek! How long has it…been…?"

"A little over seven months, Nova," he said with eyes brimming with tears. "You're home on Earth now. We're safe."

"Where am..I..going?" she said as Doctor Sane ran a device over her stomach. "How are my children?"

"Fine for now," said Sane as Nova looked at Samantha Cleveland and Dawn Westland for the first time. "You two are…?"

"Lieutenant Samantha Cleveland," said Cleveland.

"You look kind of familiar," said Nova as her eyes met Dawn's. "Why are you looking at me like that, Ensign?" she said in a somewhat sleepy voice.

As Dawn looked at Nova's keen, dark brown eyes, she somehow felt very abashed. The woman whom she had admired for many years had very distinctive, beautiful eyes, even when she looked half-asleep like she did now. Dawn immediately saw that Nova Wildstar looked both very intelligent and very compassionate. Yet, with a somewhat trembling hand, Nova felt her side to see if her weapon was there, and breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was.

"Ma'am," said Dawn. "I've..admired you from afar…for many years. My name is Ensign Dawn Westland…I…"

"Okay, cut the party!" screamed Doctor Sane. "This is a sick woman that we have to get to the hospital as soon as possible! Westland, Cleveland, help her onto that litter! She is still affected by that poison, so she's still very shaky. Derek, Jefferson, help push her to the boat. Miss Akers, send her latest vitals to the hospital. We have to get her there fast!"

Derek held Nova's hand as they helped her onto the transport litter. He kissed her as they closed up the litter and checked her vital signs on the small screen on the unit, and then pushed her off the _Argo_ onto the boat.

Soon, the Medical shuttle took off with all of them, including Sane, on board, at full speed under Hardy's guidance.

A few minutes later, after the shuttlecraft landed at a landing pad on top of Central Hospital, Wildstar stood for a moment beside Nova in a preparation room as she was undressed out of her uniform and put into a hospital gown.

"It won't be long," Derek said as he held her hand. "You'll go to sleep again for a while, and when you wake up..if everything works out, you and our children should be on their way to recovery."

He kissed her again as Sane and two other doctors came in with Dawn and another nurse for Nova. The nurses were now in operating room garb, with paper covers on over the clogs they had changed into. She waved at him as they wheeled her through the double doors into the operating room.

In the operating room, Nova's hospital gown was pulled up, and she was connected to several sensors as nurses arranged drapes around her pregnant stomach. She felt very cold, and a bit scared, but she smiled as Doctor Sane said, "You'll be fine."

The anesthesiologist, a young woman known as Doctor Isolder, stood over her and said, "Just a whiff or two of this gas, and you'll be asleep for a while. When you wake up, we'll be done."

Nova nodded, feeling just a little apprehensive as another team of nurses brought up a complex machine she recognized as a dialysis unit. Other machines were brought up, including a complex machine that Nova recognized as a synthetic liver assistance unit, and Nova recognized several bags of blood being connected to tubes and placed up on IV stands.

_They must be doing a total replacement_, she thought as she felt the pinch of a needle entering her wrist.

That was the last thing she thought as the mask went over her nose and mouth, and she quickly passed into sleep as the operating room lights went dim over her head.

"Okay, now we begin," said Doctor Sane. "Dawn! Laser knife!"

"Yessir," she said.

* * *

Commodore Derek Wildstar sat alone in a waiting room, looking with only slight interest at a back issue of _Jane's Space Warship Journal_. He threw aside the magazine and sat waiting as Sandor came in with Hardy and Homer. 

"Who has the conn aboard ship?" said Wildstar.

"The last man in command was Yamazaki," said Homer. "We were mustered off her at oh-nine-thirty hours. Our leave has started."

"Yeah," said Derek as he sighed.

"What's wrong?" said Homer.

"If you were through what I was just through," said Wildstar. "They just had some priest in here with me discussing funeral arrangements…just in case Nova doesn't come off that operating table alive," said Wildstar. "Guys, if I had known this was going to happen…"

"No one can predict the future, Derek. Not even Starsha is one hundred percent able to do that," said a deep voice as Derek looked up and recognized his big brother Alex.

"Alex?"

"Remember, I came to Earth with you to speak with the Government," said Alex Wildstar as he stood there clothed in a white uniform with a black peacoat on over it. "I'm sorry I didn't get down to Sickbay to wish Nova good luck. I…"

"She's in there already. She's been in there for about…uh…three hours…"

"We're here with you, Wildstar," said Sandor. "It should be all right."

"I hope so," said Derek.

* * *

A long time passed. Nova had gone under at 0900 Hours and Doctor Sane had estimated that the procedures that would save her and her unborn children would take about four hours. It was now about five and a half hours, and it was 1435 Hours before Doctor Sane came out, with a tired, hangdog look on his face, shaking his head. 

Wildstar immediately feared that something very bad had happened. "Doc? How's Nova?"

Sane looked at Derek and said, "It worked. We think. It took longer and the operation made me very tired because we found further complications with the unborn babies and we had to take longer to fix them, and we had to replace all of Nova's blood and the babies' blood. But, Nova is now out of danger, and after twenty-four hours of observation, if the damage to the placenta I found and fixed remains fixed, the babies will also be out of danger. We should be fine. Nova's vital signs are stable, and so are the babies'…"

"Is she awake?"

Sane nodded. "She is waking up now. She is in the ICU. All of you can come in to see her, but you have only a few minutes."

Derek was the first one in the room a few minutes later.

He and the others saw Nova lying there, looking very fragile, in a hospital gown with wires and tubes of all sorts connected to her.

Derek took her hand, and was relieved to see that it was no longer trembling

Nova opened her now-clear eyes and looked at her husband and smiled. "Hi, Derek."

"How are you feeling?" he said.

"Just fine," she said. "That burning sensation that was running under my skin…running inside me…it's all gone now." She looked at an object on her bedside table. "What's that?"

"It's a medal Desslok gave you for saving his life during the conference at Melezart."

"Did I…kill Invidia…with that dagger she threw at us? I hope that horrible woman is dead…"

"No," said Sandor sadly. "I've heard she survived the attack, although she and the Cometines were very badly hurt. We nearly destroyed the New Comet in the battle."

"Nearly destroyed," whispered Nova. "Is it still out there?"

Derek nodded. "But they seem to be on the defensive now, even though the war is still being fought. The _Argo_ was through a few small battles while you were asleep. They also bombed Earth twice."

"When will this be over?" whispered Nova.

"No one knows, sister-in-law," said Alex softly. "Starsha sent me to Earth to appeal to the Earth Government for more planes. I came here on the _Argo_. Derek cruised out to Iscandar to get me."

"We were to Iscandar?" said Nova. "I sure missed a lot being asleep. I had a lot of lovely dreams, Derek."

"About what?" said Derek.

"You. Our children. I dreamed of being home, with the war over, being in their nursery, getting ready to go to Medical School, cuddling with you, Derek, and lying in the grass giving the babies my breasts…and there was no more war. No more fighting of any sort. Just…peace…"

"I'm shure we'll have peace, Missus Nova," said Hardy.

"Jefferson, are you here, too?" smiled Nova. "Derek, how much of the Star Force have you crammed into my room?"

"Just a few of them," he said as he blushed.

"All right, that's _enough!_" cried Doctor Sane. "This is a woman who is still in guarded condition! We don't need some kind of damn convention in here! Everyone, clear out!"

Derek left with the others, waving goodbye to Nova. She blew his a kiss in return.

* * *

Commodore Derek Wildstar showed up at the hospital the next day with his brother to find that Nova was no longer in the ICU. 

"Well, where is she then?" demanded Derek of the nurse. "Did something happen during the night?"

"It happened this morning," said the nurse. "She's in Maternity Two up on the tenth floor, Room B-1027."

"What is she doing in Maternity?" insisted Derek.

"It's a precaution in case delivery has to be induced. You can see her there," said the nurse.

Derek and Alex then went up to the tenth floor to find Nova in her room, sitting there in a set of white pajamas and chatting with Dawn Westland. It seemed to Derek that Nova and Dawn had become fast friends in a hurry.

"Good morning," said Derek.

"Morning, honey," said Nova as she kissed her husband.

"She's been a great patient," said Dawn. "We were sitting here discussing different nursing protocols when you two showed up. Have you seen Jeff this morning?"

"Jeff?" said a puzzled Derek.

"She means Mister Hardy," said Nova.

"No, I haven't seen Hardy since last night. He was a bit close-mouthed about what he was going to be up to next."

"Good," said Dawn enigmaticially.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Nova.

"You'll find out soon enough. When's the _Arizona_ due back?" asked Dawn.

"On the twenty-seventh," said Derek. "Six days from now."

Dawn nodded to herself, and then said, "Well, I have to make some more rounds. Word has it that Nova will be moved to Medical in two days if she continues doing as well as she's been, which is just fine. Take care."

* * *

Three days later, on the twenty-fourth, Nova was sitting up in another bed in Medical, now wearing a set of pink and white-striped pajamas that her mother had bought her (along with a maternity wardrobe). Derek swore his wife's stomach looked just a tiny bit bigger now, as she had recovered almost all of her normal healthy glow at last. 

"Doc Sane's been talking about discharging you soon," said Derek.

"I know," said Nova. "I can't wait to come home and get this over with." She looked around the hospital room. "They're kind to me here, but I miss being with you, and I want to be home…"

"I can't wait to bring you home," replied Derek as he held Nova. "I miss you so much around the house."

Nova kissed Derek and said, " I can't wait to enjoy our leave together. Especially since the war seems to have slowed down."

"I wonder what the Cometines are up to?" said Derek.

* * *

**VI. GERNITZ'S DISGRACE**

**The Vicinity of Planet Petronia**

**The Bridge of the Dreadnought _Devastation_**

**April 25, 2207**

**1100 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Marshal Germitz could not believe what had happened to his fleet. 

He was in battle with Radnar's Dreadnought, and, so far, he had lost thirty destroyers, fifteen missile cruisers, and eight space battleships.

And his own flagship was actually taking damage from Radnar!

"Sir, at least five main gun turrets are damaged," said an officer aboard the _Devastation_ to Gernitz.

"Main engines damaged," reported another officer as fire roared in from Radnar's own Dreadnought.

"Can we lower our siege cannon?" demanded Gernitz.

"Damaged," snapped another officer. "We are going to have to retreat…"

As the _Devastation_ shook again and the lights dimmed on the bridge, Gernitz said, "All remaining forces. Prepare for a warp. We are leaving the area. Repeat, we are leaving the area. Radnar has won this round!"

Gernitz's forces then warped out, leaving Petronia, at last, in the hands of Radnar.

House Gatlantis was truly falling on hard times.

And, Gernitz knew Invidia would not be pleased at this latest loss…not at all.

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


	4. Chapter 4

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—RADNAR'S GAME**

**Being the sixth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

* * *

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---_Freddo_

* * *

**ACT FOUR: STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT**

* * *

**I. FREEDOM**

**Planet Earth**

**The Great Megalopolis**

**Central** **Hospital**

**April 26, 2207**

**1130 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

In what was now a familiar ritual, Nova was lying in bed in her room in Central Hospital with her pajamas off getting an exam from Doctor Sane, with only Derek and Dawn Westland present. 

She hoped this would be the last one for a little while, because, as Derek stood there beside her bed holding her hand, she was hoping she would get the word that she could be released today.

"Hmmmh," said Doctor Sane as he ran a portable scanner over her bare stomach. "This is very good. The babies are now completely out of distress."

"I could have told you that," teased Nova. "I've been feeling them kicking away in there again today."

"Everything we've been picking up indicates that you shouldn't have any more problems with your pregnancy…as long as you don't catch more poisoned daggers in your shoulder, that is," said Dawn.

""You're now five and a quarter months along in that pregnancy," said Doctor Sane. "And, your shoulder wound is fully healed now, thanks to our plastic surgery techniques and growth factors, along with your generally healthy constitution," he added as he poked Nova's bare shoulder.

"All I can see there is a small dimple," said Derek. "That's really amazing."

"I'm going to discharge you today," said Doctor Sane as Nova smiled. "I will want to see again you in two days on an outpatient basis. For the next week, just be careful, Nova, about lifting heavy loads, and I'd wait about two more days until I resume being physicially initimate with the Commodore, just to be safe," he added.

"Okay," she said as she began to get dressed in her undergarments, followed by a sailor-style maternity dress her mother had dropped off for her. She finished off by stepping into a pair of sandals and putting on a cute wide-brimmed hat.

"You look good enough to eat," teased Derek as he gave his wife a kiss after he helped her zip up her dress.

"The papparazzi are out by the main entrance," said Homer as he came in with Wendy Singleton. "I found a side door that we can slip out at."

Commodore Wildstar pulled his flight jacket on over his white turtleneck sweater and jeans. "Well, let's get home before they get wind of us."

"Good idea," said Nova.

* * *

The press was either tipped off by someone else, or they were just good at finding their quarry, because a bunch of photographers and reporters were waiting for the Wildstars, Glitchman, and Singleton on their way out of the hospital with Doctor Sane. 

This was the media's first sight of Nova pregnant, so a lot of pictures were taken. The questions were equally silly.

"Mrs. Wildstar, how many children are you having?"

"How far along are you?"

"Were the babies geneticially enhanced?"

"Will they be born in space?"

"No comment," said Nova. "I really don't want to talk now…thanks…"

Their security helped push away the reporters as the two couples squeezed into a borrowed EDF staff aircar that Wildstar had brought. Soon, they drove off.

The Wildstars were going home.

* * *

Later, at home, with their shoes kicked off, the Wildstars were looking over both their paper mail and e-mail with their guests sitting in their living room. 

Nova's eyes went wide as she found an envelope with the return address: _**EARTH FEDERATION CENTRAL MEDICAL COLLEGE**_.

"I wonder where _this_ came from?" said Nova. "I don't remember applying there…or writing them…I was going to apply there when the war hit…but never did it."

"Isn't that the Federation's top medical school?" said Homer.

"It is," said Derek as he looked at the envelope.

"That's my fault," said Doctor Sane with a toothy laugh. "Nova, while you were in that sleep tube, I transmitted an application, your test scores from a year ago, and letters of recommendation for you. You might like the answer…open the envelope!"

Nova did so, and she read:

_Lt. Cmdr Wildstar:_

_We are pleased to inform you, after a due consideration of your application, that we are offering you admission to the Class of 2211 of the Federation Central Medical College as an M.D. candidate._

_You admission is contingent upon your acceptance of this offer, and also upon your availability for duty, pending a release from your Commanding Officer. This offer may also be deferred for one year, placing you in the Class of 2212, upon your request, given the current war emergency…_

Nova looked at Derek. "I have no idea what's going to happen next, so, I'll have to defer the offer."

"Defer it?" said Derek.

"Yes. After our leave, aren't we going out again on the _Argo_? I can still serve…"

Derek had to think hard about this. Finally, he said, "Nova, if you feel well enough to serve…"

"Thanks," said Nova as she kissed her husband. "But, for now, while the _Argo's_ in refit, I'm looking forward to a vacation."

"Where were you going to go?" said Wendy.

"Maybe Europe," said Nova. "There's lots of places I'd like to see, now that I have the time, for once…"

* * *

**II. WAKEFIELD'S PLANS…**

**Space Battleship _Arizona_**

**Saturn-Titan Space Station**

**April 27, 2207**

**2130 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

The _Arizona_ had stopped over on its homeward cruise at Saturn-Titan space station. 

While the ship was on Titan, Deke Wakefield couldn't wait to get off the ship to get to a comm booth.

When he found a comm booth, he called Lynn Westland.

As he waited for the connection to be established, Wakefield thought, _I hope I can talk to Lynn tonight. I want to find out from her where Dawn is so we can meet up, and I can put some closure on our relationship and at least know where we stand, as friends, enemies, lovers? I'm just so damn confused….I hope Lynn knows where she is…_

Lynn Westland came through on the screen a moment later. She looked surprised to see Deke on the screen.

"Deke?" said Lynn.

"You look shocked," said Wakefield.

"Where are you?"

"Saturn-Titan. We'll be back on Earth sometime tomorrow. How are you?"

"I'm fine. You look even more mature than ever. How's the service been treating you?"

"Fine. I'm a squadron leader now, Lynn. Where's Dawn? Is she in San Diego? I was thinking of coming…"

"No, Deke."

"No?"

"She's not in San Diego."

"I thought she wanted to work at San Diego Central Hospital?" said a confused Deke.

"No. She went into military training, Deke."

"_Military_ training?" said Wakefield, who was dumbfounded. "With her attitude about the military?"

"She was sent to Pensacola Space Naval Station to learn how to fly medical boats to become a flight nurse."

"How did that happen?"

"She was _drafted_, Deke," sighed Lynn. "Because she accepted a WHO commission after graduation, she had no choice but to accept whatever assignments they dictated. Her grades were good enough, and there was a shortage of flight nurses, so she ended up being drafted to serve with the EDF."

"Okay," said Deke, who shook his head as he took all of this in. "Where did she get assigned?"

"I'm not sure, honestly," said Lynn. "After she graduated from flight school, all Dawn told me was that she was being assigned somewhere she wouldn't be able to write or phone me."

"So, where is she?"

"I have no idea," said Lynn. "But, I have a hunch that I will be hearing from her soon. When I do, I'll let you know where she is, Deke. Okay?"

"Thanks," said Deke as they shared some more small talk and then cut off while he hoped that her hunch was correct.

* * *

**III. THE BEST OF TIMES: THE WORST OF TIMES**

**Space Battleship _Arizona_**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**April 28, 2207**

**0800 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Deke Wakefield couldn't quite believe it, but the _Arizona_ was finally back home on Earth after a _very_ long cruise. 

He and the rest of the crew were mustered for one last time on the foredeck, looking up at Captain Mark Venture, who stood up on top of the Number One main gun turret. The ship was already docked under the lights in a huge underground spacedock right next to the _Argo_, which also sat there under the lights undergoing a refit.

Venture was speaking to the crew about what a fine crew they were, and what a great job they had done in the past few months, and how much he looked forward to serving with them again. But, Wakefield was barely thinking about the speech as his mind was a welter of emotions and thoughts.

Part of him was thinking of Sasha and meeting up with her again.

Another part of his mind was thinking about Dawn and what they might have to say to each other when they finally met again, as he was sure that they would.

Part of him was just thinking of getting out of the Megalopolis ASAP (after staying in the BOQ overnight) to get "home" to San Diego for several days' or weeks' worth of leave in the sun, waves, and surf. Deke heard cheers as his mind switched to listening to Venture for a moment.

"In light of your fine service," said Venture. "All of you are granted four weeks' worth of leave, commencing now. Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a tough cruise, and we have _earned_ it. You are free to go as soon as we are mustered off the ship. All in all, I'd like to say…"

Applause filled the docking bay as the crew couldn't wait to get off the ship.

* * *

Ninety minutes later, Wakefield had his leave papers, suitcase, flight bag, and seabag, and he was a free man. 

He took an airbus to the Bachelor Officers' Quarters, checked in, and went to get a late breakfast as he thought about San Diego and his past.

If only he knew what Dawn was up to that afternoon….

* * *

Dawn Westland couldn't quite beleve where she was at 1300 Hours that day. 

She was in Las Vegas, with Jefferson Hardy, in an outdoor wedding chapel.

The sun and breeze blew against her legs as she appeared before Hardy and the preacher in a long white wedding dress, wide-brimmed hat, and pumps. She took Hardy's hand as he stood there in his blues and his navy blue peacoat, smiling as he squeezed close to her before the priest.

"Do you, Jefferson Davis Hardy, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? To have and to hold, until death do you part?"

Hardy gulped a little and then said to Dawn and the priest, "I most certainly do."

"Do you, Dawn Westland, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband? To have and to hold, until death do you part?"

"I do," said Dawn with a shy smile as Jeff slid a wedding band onto one of her fingers.

"Then, with the power vested in me by the State of Nevada, the Earth Federation Government, and my church, I do pronounce you, Jefferson Davis Hardy, and Dawn Hardy, husband and wife. May no man put asunder what God hath put together. You may now kiss your bride, Mister Hardy."

Jeff smiled at Dawn, and the two of them shared a long, sweet, searching kiss. The little group of waiting couples applauded. Then, Dawn and Jeff left, running hand in hand to a waiting aircar. They got in, and then drove off together to a hotel-casino at the city limits where they would enjoy a long lunch as the first part of what would be a wonderful honeymoon.

Dawn was incredibly happy. And Deke Wakefield hadn't crossed her mind once today.

Considering her attentive new husband, it wasn't hard to see why…until it crossed her mind, just briefly that…

_It was five years ago today I broke up with Deke_, she thought. _And I thought we were going to get married like this, sooner or later. Well, that never happened…and it never will happen, now…_

"Dawn?" said Jeff. "What was on your mind?"

"Nothing," said Dawn. "Nothing at all…"

* * *

Early that afternoon, after they had visited Doctor Sane together (and Nova had gotten the OK from him to resume all of her normal activities "within reason"), Derek and Nova sat eating lunch together at an outdoor café' in the Megalopolis to celebrate her recovery and the beginning of their shared leave. Derek wore his peacoat, Command whites, and brown boots, while Nova wore a pink and white sundress and exercise sandals. 

"I have a lot to do today, Derek," said Nova as she smiled at her husband over a cup of tea and a dessert that Derek noticed was a bit larger than her usual after-lunch dish_. She's eating for three,_ he remembered.

"I know. I've got a lot to do, myself," said the Commodore as he finished up his pie.

"When are you meeting up with Mark?"

"Within the hour by Headquarters," said Derek.

"I'll be meeting Holly downtown," said Nova with another little smile. "Then our little conspriracy will start up."

"I like conspriacies," whispered the Commodore.

"So do I…when we're helping out our friends," said Nova. She waved to the waitress robot and said, "Check, please?"

"Of course," said the "female" robot.

* * *

A little later that afternoon, just as Deke Wakefield was beginning to settle down to read a book in his room at the BOQ, someone began banging at his door. 

"_Whatthehell_?" he cried, startled as he dropped his book. "I'm coming!"

The banging came again as Deke got to the door. An annoyed-looking Wakefield opened the door, and immediately snapped into a salute when he saw Commodore Wildstar and Captain Venture standing there in their peacoats and standard Command whites.

"Uh…what brings you two here, sirs?" said Wakefield.

Derek and Mark grinned at each other.

"What's going on?" said Wakefield.

"This," said Wildstar as he handed Wakefield an elaborate, engraved envelope. "Open it."

Deke did so, and he pulled out an elaborate invitation marked with the Presidential Seal that read:

_**To Lieutenant Deke Wakefield**_

_**Greetings**_

_**Your presence is requested tonight at the Presidential Palace for a reception at 2100 Hours with the Federation President and his staff.**_

_**Uniform of the Evening will be full Mess Dress Whites for male military personnel, and appropriate formal dress and Mess Dress White jacket for female military personnel.**_

_**Appropriate Formal Dress for civilians, please.**_

_**Please RSVP our automated telephone system at 2-(673)-802-5533 by 1600 Hours.**_

_**I anticipate your arrival.**_

_**Best wishes,**_

_**James R. Mendellsohn, President of the Federation of Earth Governments**_

"Dress Whites?" said Wakefield. "I don't even possess a set of Mess Dress Whites, guys. How can I show up there in a regular uniform? I can't…"

Derek said, "We can take care of that. And bring your medals and decorations. You'll be buying a dress uniform today."

"I don't know if I can afford to lay out that much, sir."

"I'm buying," said Wildstar. "It is very important that you be there tonight…for more reasons than one…"

"The conspiracy," whispered Mark.

"Conspiracy?" said Wakefield. "What's going on?"

"Something interesting," said Wildstar. "Get your medals, Deke. Don't make me make this an order."

Wakefield got his medals a moment later. He didn't have that many. He had a Good Conduct Medal, a Purple Heart, a Medallion of Merit, the Gamilon decoration that Desslok had given him, and a Second Cometine Campaign medal. He put his five decorations into a presentation case and tucked it into a pocket inside his flight jacket.

Then, to his shock, Nova showed up in her civvies and she said to Derek, "My preparations are almost complete at my end, Operation Princess is about to be initiated."

Derek kissed her and said, "Good job."

Nova winked at Wakefield and said, "I think you'll like what's going to happen tonight at Presidential House, Deke." Then, she winked at him and gave him a hug before she left.

* * *

Wakefield had no idea what was going on or where Wildstar and Venture were shanghaing him that afternoon until he found himself in a very high-toned part of the Megalopolis that he had never seen before. 

Deke found himself in front of an tony-looking store known as "Marks and Westland".

_Marks and Westland?_ Deke thought. _Same last name as Dawn. The place looks expensive. What the heck do they sell in there?_

Wakefield soon found out that this store sold tailored military uniforms. Very _expensive_ ones by the look of the place.

A while later, after a robot tailor worked on him, Deke found himself in a new set of Mess Dress Whites. The men's version of the uniform looked a bit like a white tux, with his medals worn on the small white high-collared tux-like military coat that had a bright red collar and lining.

"How do I look?" said Wakefield.

"You look good," said Venture. "I didn't own that kind of uniform until recently, myself."

"And I didn't own this kind when I married Nova," said Commodore Wildstar. "I got mine after I got my flag rank in late 2202. Mark, did you reach Holly, yet?"

"I did," he said as he put away his portable phone. "She says that Nova is there and the operation is going well."

"What kind of operation is this?" said Wakefield.

"You'll find out," said Wildstar as he dialed a number again on his phone. "Venture, I still can't reach Hardy. I have no damn idea where _he_ is."

"Things'll work out, Wildstar. Chill out," said Venture.

"Well?" said the proprietor of the uniform shop.

"Wrap it up, we'll take it," said Wildstar. "I'm paying, of course."

"Yessir," said the proprietor.

* * *

Sasha found herself surprised that morning when Nova Wildstar and Holly Venture showed up at her dorm room inviting her to go shopping. Nova also gave her an invitation to attend the reception at the Presidential Palace. 

"How did I get invited?" said Sasha as she looked over the invitation.

"You know why," said Nova with a wink. Fortunately, her roommate was not around to hear this, and Nova had just let Holly in on Sasha's "secret" with Derek and Mark's permission. "We need to get you a formal uniform jacket, gown, and shoes today, along with a facial, manicure and pedicure, and we need to do a little something with your hair."

"Do you have any medals?" said Holly.

"Yes, this Good Conduct Medal; that's it," said Sasha.

"Bring it," said Nova as Sasha got up from her desk in her dorm room; she had on shorts, a t-shirt, and was padding around in her socks. Nova said, "The shorts are OK, but put on a nicer top, and take your socks off and put on a pair of sandals."

Sasha nodded, getting the necessary things out from her locker. Finally, after putting on a sailor-style top and a pair of white sandals she had just bought the other day, she said, "This is OK?"

"Sure is," said Holly. "Let's go."

"But I was supposed to go to class today?" said Sasha. It was a Tuesday, so this was a legitmate concern for Sasha.

"I've arranged for you to have an excused absence from class and drill today," said Nova. "Let's go…"

* * *

Sasha was then dragged to a number of places; she was taken to a hairdresser's place, first, where her long hair was washed, trimmed, blow-dried, and carefully brushed out while Nova and Holly also received similar treatment. Next, Sasha was taken to another place for a careful facial and manicure and pedicure; she sat laughing as she got her nails polished. Then, she was taken to another shop where Nova and Holly purchased long ball gowns and matching heels for themselves and Sasha. 

Finally, Sasha was taken to Marks and Westland, where she and the others were fitted for female dress jackets similar to those the men would be wearing. Sasha's jacket had cadet markings and her single Good Conduct medal; while Holly and Nova, of course, had more decorations.

When she was finally dressed up in her blue ball gown, matching high-heeled sandals, and dress jacket, Sasha looked at herself in the mirror and thought, _I really look like a Princess, now, while Nova and Holly look like royalty with all those medals. _Nova and Holly had similar outfits, with Nova wearing a pink gown and heels and Holly clad in a green gown and shoes.

On the way out, Nova ran (running as fast as she could run in her heels) into a jewelry store nearby and came out a few minutes later, smiling to herself like a cat that ate the canary with a very small bag.

Nova then left them for a time to meet Derek at home while Holly took Sasha to the Ventures' house in her gown, where she and Mark met and prepared to go.

Sasha wondered why she was tagging along (even though she had an invitation like the others) but Holly caught the quizzical look on her face and told her "Sasha, you are here tonight for a very good reason."

"Oh," replied Sasha. "What is it?"

"You will find out soon enough," said Holly. Then, Holly and Mark smiled at each other, but Sasha's senses were weirded out. Even a half-Iscandarian like her had no idea what to make of this.

A few minutes later, Sasha was driven to Presidential House. When she arrived there, she had to pass through many checkpoints before reaching the East Room of the Presidential Palace, where an elaborate ball was in progress.

Sasha gave up her invitation to a uniformed Special Services Guard, who scanned it and let her pass. Sasha looked around. Most of the people here were far older than she was, and the women looked (to her) even more elegant than she did. It seemed to Sasha that she was the youngest one there.

Sasha again looked down at her outfit; blue gown, open-toed blue heels, white dress jacket. _I feel weird in this_, she thought. _I feel like a fish out of water here tonight. Why am I even here? I wish I knew why I was here tonight…_

Then, she looked over. Derek and Nova had come in together, followed by another young man who was also in Dress Whites like her uncle was. Sasha looked at him, and then she realized who it was.

_Deke?_ Sasha thought in confusion. _You were going to be here tonight, and you didn't even tell me? You didn't call, or anything? What is going on?_

* * *

**IV. THE DARKEST OF PLANS…**

**Pariantha House**

**Planet R'Khelleva**

**April 28, 2207**

**2045 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Piper Sandberg, long-time traitor to Earth, had been living on R'Khelleva for about five years now. 

It was his adopted home, since he knew he could never return to Earth under the current government without being arrested and then put on trial for his life…but he hated the place.

R'Khelleva had been, for many centuries, the home of the priestly caste of Ekogaru, fanatical psionics, fanatical warrior-priests as cruel as the harsh, stinking air of the planet.

Sandberg knew that R'Khelleva had once been a pleasant, green world like Earth. But, many centuries worth of mining, building, and fleet production on this world when it had been a cornerstone of the Rikashan Star Empire had defiled the air and water of the place.

It had become even worse in the five years since R'Khelleva had refused to listen to the Rikashan edicts that banned the Cult of Ekogaru and had decided to simultaneously secede from the Rikashan sphere of influence and to declare itself the true capital in exile of the Rikashan people, which it had then declared a holy war upon. The R'Khells considered the now somewhat-peaceful Rikashans of the Rikashan Federation heretics and traitors since they had broken free from Ekogaru's influence, and the Rikashans considered their terroristic one-time brothers enemies and killers of the worst sort.

Sandberg sat with Marshal Lecha Voton, leader of the R'Khells, in a meeting in Voton's palace of Pariantha House.

What he heard was quite interesting.

Voton said, "I have a unit on its way to Earth now to join up with the Josiahite cultists to assassinate some people."

"Earth?" said Sandberg. "Who's leading this mission?"

"The clone of Yvona Josiah created by the Lord Ekogaru. His son, Erugar, is the second-in-command of the mission. Arrogant lad. I wish he had died at birth."

"That is a vile wish, Marshal."

"He, Sandberg, may grow enough in power to supplant _us_." Voton mused into his cup of wine and said, "I wish we had an assassin there to assasinate the assassin, Sandberg."

"These things have a funny way of playing out, Voton," hissed Sandberg. "See how the boy does in this mission. If he survives, maybe I could arrange an…accident for him when he comes home?"

"An accident," hissed Voton. He laughed and said, "Aye, Sandberg. I like that! An _accident_! Ha ha ha ha HA…"

* * *

**V. A NIGHT OF HOPE AND DESPAIR…**

**Presidential House**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**April 28, 2207**

**2105 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Sasha continued to sit mystified as Deke Wakefield and Nova Wildstar walked up beside the President's podium together. 

There, Deke finally had his Navy Cross pinned to his jacket by the President after he pinned the Federation Medal on Nova's dress jacket. Both officers saluted the President as the dance orchestra played the EDF March and everyone applauded.

A few minutes later, Deke and Sasha were dancing together.

Then, Sasha finally got the opportunity to speak with Deke as they danced close in each other's arms.

"Deke, why all the secrecy? Why didn't you let me know you'd be here?"

"I wanted you to be surprised," he replied.

"Well, you sure did surprise _me_," said Sasha. She stumbled a second.

"Are you all right?" said Deke.

"Sorry, I'm not the world's best dancer," she replied with a blush.

"Neither am I," said Deke.

They smiled at each other and laughed as they continued dancing.

Not far away, Derek and Nova were dancing sweetly with each other; Nova had removed her dress jacket, and was dancing in her husband's arms with a protective hand of his on one of her bare shoulders.

"This will be a night to remember, Derek," whispered Nova as she snuggled close to her husband.

"It sure will be. You were decorated, honored in public for your sacrifices at the conference…sacrifices that almost cost me your life…" said Derek with a hitch in his voice. He stroked Nova's pregnant chiffon-clad stomach as they danced. "I'm so glad they're fine…"

"Me too," said Nova. "But…this gown…it's beautiful, but it is feeling too tight. I just want to burst out of it when we get home tonight…"

"And?" whispered Derek.

Nova just smiled back as she kissed Derek on the nose. "I think you can guess what I want tonight…"

"Me too…about time I gave you a very belated birthday present…"

Nova then blushed and whispered in Derek's ear. "Yes. The kind I can accept only in my birthday suit…" Then, Nova kissed Derek's earlobe and nibbled at it.

The feeling of his wife's sweetness made Commodore Wildstar shiver. He responded by sliding his hand down his wife's back to her bottom as she danced. The touch of his hand there sent shivers down her spine that made her toes curl up with delight as they danced.

And so it went as the song played on…and another one began as Deke and Sasha and Derek and Nova danced again…

* * *

After their dance, Deke was surprised again when Nova grabbed him and led him off to a far corner of the room through a crowd where high Government officials and legislators, judges, bureaucrats, and industrial bigwigs were smoking, laughing, and drinking wine, brandy, sake, and other such refreshments. Nova was avoiding those; she had a glass of fruity punch in her hand (although it was garnished with a little paper Japanese umbrella stuck in a pineapple slice). 

"Nova, why did you drag me away from Sasha like that?"

"I have something to give you," she said as she quickly put a small box into his inner dress coat pocket. "Derek and I were hatching a plot while we danced."

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just a gift from us to give Sasha?"

"Sasha?"

"Of course. You were away…we could spare it….and…well…I think you and Sasha have a future together. A very bright one."

"I…the…."

"Deke." Nova said. "She is crazy about you. Don't deny it. You feel the same way about her. I saw the way you were holding her when I was dancing with Derek. Getting a little harder to dance for long because..mmm…" Nova paused to pat her stomach. "They're throwing me off balance a bit tonight. And they're letting me know they like the music. Anyway…I have a vested interest in you and Sasha. After all, Sasha and I are related, so…."

"_Related?_" said Deke.

Nova blushed and put up her hand. "Oops. You weren't supposed to know that….uh….she's a distant relative on Derek's side of the family. _Very_ long story, but I'm sure Sasha will tell you soon..if she hasn't already. Has she told you where she's _from_ yet? Just say yes or no…"

"Uh…no….not really….she said something about it being interesting, but…there's some mystery involved. Nova, what is she keeping back from me?"

"Long story….nothing really bad….just….different."

"Nova, is she gay or something?"

Nova Wildstar looked at Deke with a look similar to the sort she might have given her Federation Medal if it had started talking to her. "_No_," said Nova, who then hid her face in her hands and giggled nervously. "It's not that at all. I swear, you and Derek…you should get together sometime…"

"Uh?"

"I had a talk somewhat like this with our dear Commodore back in 2199 when he could _not_ figure out I was wishing on the Voton Star that he'd fall in love with me! You men, you pilots, are so dense at times! No, Sasha is very attracted to you."

"And I'm dating Derek Wildstar's ninth cousin to the nth degree?"

Then, Sasha turned up. "Nova, Deke, my ears are burning. Like _mad_. Are you talking about me?"

"Yes, but it's good," said Deke. "Just weird.."

"Weird?" said Sasha. "Deke, what are you and Nova talking about?"

"You," said Nova. "All right, Sasha, the cat?"

"Yes."

"He got out of the bag."

"What?" said Sasha, who was looking very annoyed. "Nova, do you have brandy in that damn drink?"

"Can't, I'm pregnant. I slipped because I'm getting stupid in my old age."

"What old age, you're just twenty-nine! You were sort of asleep when it happened…"

"You're not much older than I am, and you know what I mean," snapped Nova. Deke was feeling like he was at a tennis match as the two young women argued.

"I may be younger than you but I have more sense, even if my mind feels that this whole night is weirder than my dress," said Sasha. "Nova, how much does he know?"

"That you're Derek Wildstar's ninth cousin to the nth degree or something like that and I think you're not from either Japan or America," said Deke. "If you're from Russia, I don't mind that. Petrovsky sounds like a Russian name. Although I never knew Wildstar had Russian relations."

"Derek has relations all over the place, scattered to the four winds," said Sasha. Then, she decided to use the "Purloined Letter" tactic (expose the truth in plain sight but do not point it out) as she said, "I have family in St. Petersburg, the Tokyo Megalopolis, Boulder, Colorado, Seattle, Washington, Iscandar…"

"Iscandar?" said Deke. "Whaaat?"

"A relative of hers is assigned to Iscandar," said Nova in a smooth voice. "It has to do with scientific research and diplomatic relations."

Sasha giggled hard at that one. "Liar liar, pants on fire!" she said, sticking her tongue out at Nova for emphasis.

"I'm not wearing pants, I'm wearing a gown," snapped Nova. "Sasha…remember…"

"Oh…yeah," said Sasha. "Trying to…"

"What is going on?" said Deke.

"Lots," said Sasha as she grinned at Deke. "Want another dance?"

Deke nodded dully as Sasha pulled him away from Nova, who was shocked and surprised to see her own father there. Nova and Karl Forrester began an animated talk while Derek Wildstar showed up to listen as Deke and Sasha danced again.

* * *

Sasha and Deke ended up back at a table a few minutes later. Whatever apprehension and strangeness Deke had been feeling about Sasha's possible distant relationship to the Wildstars was alloyed a little by her talking with him and using the sweet spell of her eyes on him as she held him close while they had danced. Deke felt intoxicated by just looking at his girlfriend as they sat there talking while Nova and Derek showed up again at their table. Mark and Holly followed, while Sasha said to Deke, "I will take you where I come from…not too long from now. There's beaches there with lots of white sand. I think you'd like it." 

"Is there surfing?" said Deke.

"Plenty of it, although the idea is still catching on," said Sasha as she felt something digging hard into her toes under the table (the heel of Nova's dress sandal as she tried to get Sasha to stifile it). "Uhh…what about our future together, Deke?"

"You mean?" said Wakefield. "Well…I'd love to know about what you'll be doing with the Academy…"

"Possible early graduation at the end of the semester or sometime in the summer," said Sasha. "They haven't made it clear yet. I'm supposed to be doing my summer cruise aboard a space battleship with part of the Fleet, and when I know which ship it is, we can and will keep in touch. And you?"

"I think I'll probably be reassigned back to the _Arizona_," said Deke. "Where we are going after that…I don't know…"

"None of us do," said Derek. "We have no idea where the war is taking us…although it seems to have slowed down…"

"Maybe the war will just end with a whimper, not a bang?" said Sasha.

"I hope so," said Nova. "I'd love to have my children at home on Earth, maybe after a short patrol cruise with Derek. I've been feeling…romantic lately…"

"Me, too," said Sasha as she looked at Deke. She smiled at him and looked over as Venture was about to say something but shut his mouth.

"Sir?" said Sasha.

"You were going to say something to Wakefield," said Venture. "Don't let me stop you."

"Yes…" said Sasha. "Deke, I love you…lots…and lots…and lots…"

"Sasha," said Deke as he stammered a little. He put his hand in his pocket and felt a small box. It was covered with velvet. He immediately had a good idea what he was being set up to do. He held Sasha's hands and just looked into her eyes as the table went quiet with anticipation. "I….there's….something….something I want to ask you, Sasha."

"Yes?" said Sasha in a sweet, quiet voice. "What is it, Deke?"

"Sasha…I wanted…I wanted to…just," he said as he fumbled with the box. Sasha's eyes lit up when she saw him beginning to pull it out. "Sasha…Midshipman Sasha Petrovksky…I wanted…it is my duty to…I wanted to ask if you'd…"

"yes," said Sasha in a very small voice, completing his thought for him as she unabashedly read his mind and helped him.

"…what?" said Deke.

"I'm good at guessing things, Deke…I said…"

"But, Sasha, I never got to finish…I want to ask you if you'd want to…"

"I said yes," she whispered again. "I can guess what you're fumbling with, Deke. Not loose change…" she said with a smile.

"I…" stammered Deke as he struggled with the box.

Then, Wakefield felt a hand on his shoulder as the table went quiet, and he saw everyone around, Sasha included, stopping in their tracks to snap a salute at someone behind him.

"I…?" said Deke. "Who..?"

"Lieutenant," said the voice of Commanding General Hiram Singleton as Deke flipped around and immediately saluted.

"SIR?" said Deke. He knew he couldn't say anything to the Commander for interrupting things…when he had been about to propose to Sasha.

Deke also thought, _Why did she say yes before I got all the words out? Or even the ring? Or did I hear that right?_

"Sir," said Sasha in a tremulous, angry, and close-to-tears at once voice. "You're interrupting something important, with all due respect. Can it wait?"

"No," said Singleton. "Lieutenant Wakefield, I must discuss something with you alone, in confidence. I am sorry for the bad timing, but what we must discuss requires an answer by 2300 Hours if it is to be implemented. Would you come with me, please?"

"Yessir," said Deke after a moment. "Sasha…I'll be back…I'm sorry…"

"That's all right," said Sasha as she bravely tried to smile.

When Deke left, Sasha put her head on the table and began to cry her eyes out as Nova came up behind her to put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What a moment for a damn Command meeting!" wept Sasha. "Nova, why couldn't he have waited…for one minute….? Mother, why could he have NOT WAITED???" she cried as she shocked Nova by balling up her fists and looking up at the ceiling. "Mother, why?"

Nova sighed, "Sometimes…things…have to wait in a war…"

"But why?" wept Sasha. "WHY?"

Suddenly, outside, there was a thunderclap. Lightning came from nowhere outside, and the noise of the clap of thunder from a clear night sky made the whole large hall go silent for a moment. Then, the conversation slowly cranked back up when they realized that Earth was NOT under some strange attack…

…as Sasha just sat there and cried and muttered strange things under her breath in some unknown language.

Only Nova caught it. She knew at once that Sasha was so upset that she was openly sobbing in Iscandarian to her Mother.

And far away, in the Great Magellenic Cloud, her mother had been roused from sleep because of her daughter's psychic pain. For a terrible moment, Queen Starsha's rage and pain had actually touched Earth, too far away in itself to harm anything, but enough to terrify many partygoers with lightning from a clear sky at night.

"This is horrible," said Derek as he came over and tried to hug Sasha, only to be pushed away.

"You're right," said Nova after a long moment. "Absolutely, positively, damn straight _right_!"

Nova then banged her fist on the table in a gesture of rage that shocked everyone there, even Derek.

"Derek," she snapped. "We have to fix this."

"Fix this?"

"Fix this so they don't have to wait?" snapped Nova. "Derek, how do you think I would have felt if I'd been interrupted when you had proposed to me? Even if it _was_ on the bridge of a burning space battleship?"

"You're right," said Derek as Holly tried to console a crying Sasha. "We can't leave them here like this. They should have at least been able to finish proposing to each other…"

"I'd love to just…I like the Commander…but that was just…horrid," stammered Nova as she began to cry. She went to Sasha. "Sasha, what do you want? You count more than the rest of us…"

"What I'd want…" said Sasha…"Is for him to put that ring on my finger and then marry me tonight. He'll be leaving tonight, won't he?"

"Sasha, how do you know that?" said Holly.

"I just know," said Sasha. "I can practically hear and see that Commander giving Deke some new damn emergency assignment to some squadron or something. Okay, maybe he has to go. Can't this suspense end and can't he become my husband?"

"How do we set this up?" said Nova. "Go…to…"

"…the President," said Derek. "It may screw my career, but decisions can be changed. We know that, Nova, Mark….don't we?"

Nova and Venture nodded. "You've done it before, Wildstar. Why not do it again? Because if it won't work out…"

"We can steal the _Argo_ again and shanghai you and Deke into space and marry you aboard the ship!" laughed Commodore Wildstar. "If we have to…"

Nova clapped her hands and said, "I'm in…"

"Have all of you just gone stark raving mad?" said Holly Venture.

"I need an assistant pilot if Eager won't come along," said Mark. "Holly?"

"I..guess…" said Holly. "But shouldn't you see the President first? And who's gonna perform a wedding at short notice? I don't think you have a preacher in your purse, Nova…"

"Was I called?" said Father Likanski, the genial priest and chaplain in his EDF greens and clerical collar who had married Derek and Nova as he came up with Karl Forrester in tow.

"Oh, _thank you, God_!" laughed Nova as she jumped up and hugged and kissed the priest and then her surprised father. "You are an answer to an unspoken prayer, sir! Up to some work tonight, Father Likanski? Dad, up to a party?"

"Is it for a good cause?" said the priest.

"Is this some madcap scheme of my daughter's, Derek?" said Karl Forrester as he adjusted his glasses and noticed that something good had to be happening if that blonde girl named Sasha had suddenly stopped crying and wiping her eyes. In fact, she was beginning to smile.

"Sure is," said Derek over the music of the band. He noticed the time was now twenty-one forty hours. "Let me explain…"

* * *

Unaware of the change of course outside, a seething and shocked Deke Wakefield sat drinking a cup of coffee alone in a small side office in the huge Presidential House with Commanding General Singleton. They had ended up there after a long, silent walk down many corridors. 

Singleton said, "I hate to have interrupted things, Mister Wakefield, but what I have to talk about is _important_. Earth and Iscandar are both in dire need."

"Why?" said Deke.

"We have received intelligence from the Gamilons that the Cometine forces are trying to organize some sort of offensive in the Great Magellenic Cloud, and that, even stranger than this, they seem to be at war with each other."

"I thought that Invidia person had an iron hand over them," said Deke, who felt both guilty and angry as he thought of Sasha crying out there…because of this war. "Why does this affect _me_, sir?"

"Please, Mister Wakefield. Patience," said the Commander. "Our scientific colony, and the security of Iscandar, are guarded by several Gamilon and Earth Federation fighter groups. Desslok has to withdraw one of them in the next month to supply two new carriers, and another one will have to soon be reassigned to Gamilon. This has created a danger to Iscandar and a political crisis of sorts between Iscandar and Gamilon that we have to step in to fill up. To fill this gap, two Earth Fighter Groups are being reassigned to Iscandar to complement the Groups already there. These Groups are in need of a commanding officer. One of them is scheduled to leave Earth tonight."

"Tonight?"

"Aboard the Spacecraft Carrier _Wasp_, Mister Wakefield. Of course, she will just be ferrying this Group there. This first Group is a Group of twenty-four Cosmo Tiger IIB all-purpose strike fighters/recon planes known as the Trojans," said Singleton as he pushed a folder at Wakefield. "The Trojans need a Group and squadron leader with a great deal of flight experience and recent combat experience against the Cometines. Scheduled liftoff from Earth is 0800 Hours tomorrow morning, Wakefield. I am offering you this command and immediate emergency promotion to Senior Lieutenant. Will you accept?"

Deke sat and thought hard for a moment. Finally, hoping he wasn't burying his career, he said, "Yessir. I am considering accepting. Upon three conditions."

"They are?"

"Sir…," said Deke as he struggled to keep his temper in check. "First, sir…I ask to be permitted to _finish proposing_ to Midshipman Second Class Sasha Petrovsky." Deke pulled out the box and opened it. "This was purchased for me to give to her, and I accepted the idea and she seems to have accepted the notion as well. Let me, for the love of God, not leave here without putting that ring on her finger."

"Granted," said Singleton in a quiet voice with his eyes closed. "Second?"

"That I be permitted some time alone with Miss Petrovsky to soothe her feelings tonight. Especially since if I am going to Iscandar, God knows when I will see her again."

"Granted," said the Commander. "Third request?"

"Find me Liuetenant Jere Marrable, if you can. If I ship out tonight, he goes with me, damnit, if he wants to. I need a second flight leader I'd trust with my damn gonads, and that man, well, he fits the bill…"

"Granted," said Singleton as the door burst open and the President burst in. "Hiram," he said as he shut the door hard. "The Alliance has taken another shot tonight. We have a very upset Princess out there. Said Princess has already conferred psychically with her Mother. We are trying to raise Starsha of Iscandar again right now in my office on the hot line. Prince Consort Wildstar is on the phone here on Earth and Commodore and Lieutenant Commander Wildstar have a solution to this crisis, but…"

"Sir?" said Wakefield. "There's an even more upset cadet out there that needs my help. What does some Princess from Iscandar or one of its allies have to do with this?"

"Everything," said President Mendellsohn. "Singleton," said the President. "Wakefield is cleared by my authority, to know everything about Operation Shuri Castle and Operation Diamond effective at once. He has the same clearance the Wildstar family has. Total and complete confidence. To be shared only on a need-to-know basis. The Venture couple has the same clearance, along with Karl Forrester, Father Likanski, and whoever else Wakefield and Petrovsky, so-called, may invite to this. If it comes off. It is the Wildstars' idea. It solves things perfectly. There is a major crisis because of this faux pas of yours alone, your fault, and _yours alone, Hiram_," snapped Mendellsohn. "You may have caused a diplomatic rupture tonight by interrupting something that Queen stated to me personally on the communicator was "_ordained for two years, and your Singleton…he has just damaged Destiny_." The Royal Family, for the first time, Hiram, we have offended the Royal Family."

"what is going on?" said Deke, who was feeling as if he had just stepped into a big pile of something that smelled very nasty. "What does this have to do with Sasha and I? She is some cousin of Wildstar's…I think…"

"How much did she tell you, Wakefield?" said Mendellsohn. "I mean, Petrovsky. What did she give as an account of herself?"

"That she was related to the Wildstars," said Deke. "What does this have to do with Iscandar? She said she had family serving there, at the base, I think, but…"

"God," said Singleton. "One thing at a time! Mister President, how bad is the diplomatic rupture?"

"Bad. The Princess herself, who is here, communicated with Her Highness through her link, and she is very upset. Her Highness communicated the news to her husband and Gamilon. Desslok knows of this, too. Desslok is outraged. He has warm feelings and regards for both Petrovsky and Wakefield. There has been word the Gamilon Ambassador may show up here tonight with a Note of Protest. Same with Crown Princess Astra."

"Because I should have kept my big mouth shut for two minutes?" said the impressive figure of the Commander before his President. "Sir, if that is what I have done, I hereby tender you my resignation and my retire…"

"Don't fall on your sword _yet_, Hiram!" barked the President. "The Wildstars propose fixing this by letting things just play out. He is not going anywhere until tomorrow, right?"

"Yessir," said the Commander.

"Then he can stay here a bit longer. Good. Hiram, get Petrovsky in here and leave her alone with Wakefield. When things are done, I will step back in. I think I can make things up for our offended Royals. And tell Petrovsky she can finally tell Wakefield everything. As of right now. Wakefield, you may soon hear some startling news. Tell no one."

"I'll have Nova bring her in, sir," said the Commander. "I am not sure I want to show my face around her for a while, and…"

"Oh…sorry," said the President. "Minor matter. Does Wakefield accept the new assignment you offered him?"

"Yes….that…," said Singleton. "Wakefield. Do you accept command of the Trojans?"

"I guess," said Deke. "Okay. Will Sasha explain to me what she has to do with Iscandarian bloody Princesses and Royalty and diplomatic protests? Did some love-struck alien Princess out there see our proposal and get mad when it was interrupted?"

"No, it is far worse than that," said Singleton. "You are about to discover the truth about what you've dared to play with."

The Commander left, slamming shut the door.

* * *

**VI. SECRETS**

**Presidential House**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**April 28, 2207**

**2200 Hours: Earthtime**

* * *

Deke waited. He had no idea how long. 

It was only nine minutes. A clock in the room chimed twenty-two hundred hours, as Deke abstractedly thought. _Five years ago tonight, at this very moment, Dawn began to formally break it off with me after a very bad day together. Is this the night I lose Sasha, too? What is going on? _

The door opened, and Sasha came in. holding hands with Nova, and looking very sheepish.

"Sasha?"

"hi, deke," she said in a very tiny voice. "Your President just ranked me out in his office. But…I couldn't help it?"

"Help what?" said Deke.

"There is a lot going on," said Nova. "Sasha, he's cleared. Tell him _everything_…He has to know."

"Yes, Auntie Nova," said Sasha in a tiny voice as Nova kissed her on the cheek and left.

"Auntie Nova?" said Deke.

Sasha nodded. "I'm surprised you didn't start putting two and two together yet, Deke. And I'm so scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Scared of what you will think when I tell you…"

Deke knelt before Sasha, hugged her, and rocked her for a long time. "Shhhh…I can't stay mad at you."

"You will be. Okay. They made me do it."

"Do what?"

"Lie. You'll see. Deke?"

"We have unfinished business, first, Sasha. I mean to finish this." Deke swallowed hard and took out the box. "Sasha, if my temper, my warlike actions, my rage, my hatred for the Gamilons, and my contempt for Queen Starsha for using Earth and the lives of our race and my family as a toy to make a point…if that does not scare you away, I, Sasha Petrovsky, humbly ask you if you will become engaged to me for…for the purpose of marrying me?" Deke then opened the box and said. "Sasha…this ring…"

"I already told you that I accept…out there," said Sasha as Deke slid the ring onto her finger. Deke dropped the box, and they embraced. Soft music came up from outside as Sasha said, "Deke, your anger does not scare me. You have every right in the world to be angry at my mother. She should have had Astra come here sooner and offer you more help. And I have argued hard with her about it…where I come from."

"Wait?" said Deke. "How did your mother have anything to do with Astra of Iscandar, the first one…?"

"Astra was my mother's sister. My mother is Queen Starsha of Iscandar, Deke," said Sasha in a small monotone. "I know you hate Iscandarians. Please do not hate me. I am half-human. My father is Prince Consort Alex Wildstar, Commanding Admiral of Iscandar's Royal Defense Forces. Derek Wildstar is my uncle. Nova Wildstar is my aunt. I am not Sasha Petrovsky, but Sasha Wildstar, Second Princess of Iscandar, Midshipman Second Class of the Earth Defense Forces. I am half-Iscandarian, Deke. And I am only about three of your Earth years old. I am a member of the Iscandarian Royal Family. I was so upset tonight when Commanding General Singleton interrupted us that I could not help myself and I cried out to my mother through my psionic bond with her. I have offended her. I should be put to death for offending her. And you should have this ring back."

Deke said, "Sasha, I'm sorry. You are NOT giving that ring back, unless you really want to. I don't want to break off anything."

"You don't? I lied to you.." she said as she looked down at her toes. Deke, only then, noticed she had taken off her sandals and went barefoot. Somehow, it made her look very small and forlorn.

"You couldn't help it, I guess. But why?"

"The Earth Government ordered me to keep this a dire secret from everyone…even you, Deke. Even you. I have been pleading with them _and_ my mother for months to tell you the truth. But they didn't let me. Until now. Mother finally relented."

"How do you know?"

"She told me in here, silly," she said as she pointed to her own head. "Any more questions about your lying, freaky, weird Iscandarian fiancee' you want to know, Deke?"

"Yes. How can you be just three years old?"

"Iscandians grow to maturity in their first year, Deke. In one year, I developed from babyhood to the equivalent of sixteen or seventeen of your years old. Then, the rapid aging gradually slowed down and stopped. I am the rough equivalent of twenty-one Earth years old now, if you are wondering. And I'm not a virgin."

"Why do you seem to loath yourself for that? A lot of women..experiment. Like men do."

"I slept with two men. One was an Iscandarian I fell in love with named Talva. He was a sweet young man. He died later in a swimming accident on Iscandar, but I was with him several times. About five. The other time was with a Gamilon."

"Sasha…how and why?"

"It was on Iscandar," sobbed Sasha. "He gave me a drugged drink. The so-callled honorable Gamilon was an officer named Baron Harmen Rizak. He used words, flattery, and a spiked drink to lure me into bed with him. When I woke up, he was doing the most disgusting things to me in bed while I was waking up! It would have made you sick. I ran away from him naked and ran home like that down the beach. Nudity on the beach is not that uncommon amongst Iscandarians. Our beaches are warm, isolated, beautiful, and the surfing is great. When I was very small, Aunt Nova taught me how to swim like that. What upset my father was seeing me crying and naked. He spoke with Desslok. I heard later Desslok slashed Rizak's vile face with a saber for this violation…"

"Never thought I'd say this, but good for Desslok," said Deke as Sasha smiled a little.

She continued with, "And then, Desslok put one of his eyes out and exiled him to a battle area at the edge of the Empire someplace for that. I never saw him again, thank the gooddess. At the space school, I got harassed a lot. Teased, just for having long hair and being female. You have some good people on Earth, and some vile ones. A few other midshipmen played roaming hands with me on so-called dates. You never did. I love you for that, Deke. And, yes, I want to marry you. If you'll have me. If you'll have a freak of an Iscandarian ditz who can see into the future and acts weird…"

"I sure will," said Deke. He gulped and said, "I'd marry you tonight if I could."

"You would?" said Sasha as tears of joy ran down her cheeks.

"I would…but…where do we get a religious figure or…?"

"That can be _arranged_!" laughed Sasha. "Tonight, then?"

"Yeah, if Brew can be here to be my best man," said Deke.

Then, a knock came at the door. "Are you two done yet?" said Nova's voice through the door. "I hope you two are decent…"

"We sure are!" laughed Sasha as Nova peeked in. Nova then opened the door and Sasha got up and hugged her as Deke was shocked as a stunned Brew walked in behind her.

"Uhhh…something about a wedding, Deke?" said Brew. "What the hell is up?"

"Well, Brew, I am leaving tonight. Mind being assigned as a flight leader and second XO of a Flight Group they're giving me?"

"Not at all. Who's getting married?"

"Us, we think…" said Sasha. "Brew, he wants you as best man…"

"Uh…okay," said Brew as he fixed his blue and red peacoat. "It's about Goddamned time you got married! Is she your squirrel for good now, Deke?"

"Yes, she is my squirrel. Forever and ever," said Deke.

"Hollleee shit," laughed Brew.

"What is this squirrel business?" said Nova.

"Long story," said Deke.

"Mind me as matron of honor?" said Nova as she hugged Sasha.

"Not at all, Auntie. You've been like Mom to me here on Earth…who'll give me away?"

"You father, silly," said Nova. "We're agreed, then? You two are no longer upset?"

Deke and Sasha nodded, and then they kissed.

"I'll go tell the President," said Nova.

"Thanks," said Sasha. "And please ask Desslok and Mother to withdraw those silly diplomatic notes?"

"I sure will try," said Nova as she ran off.

"Mother?" said Brew. "Girl, who's your mama?"

"Another long story," said Sasha. "I'm really a Princess and my mother is Queen Starsha of Iscandar and my father is Alex Wildstar…"

"Sheeeit," said Brew.

"It goes like this," said Sasha as she began to explain.

* * *

Five minutes later, as President Mendellsohn stood in his office with Singleton beside him waiting as he faced down General Kalnaz, a Gamilon Consul from the Embassy in full uniform, and, of course, Alex Wildstar, who stood there in his black uniform and red and black peacoat that looked somewhat like the coat he had worn a long time ago as the Captain of the missile destroyer _Paladin_. Nova ran into the office and said, while catching her breath. "Mister President, Commander, Deke Wakefield and Princess Sasha have agreed to their engagement, with their marriage to follow as soon as it can be arranged. Princess Sasha asks the Governments of Iscandar and Gamilon to withdraw their protests against the Earth Government for upsetting her and her mother." 

Kalnaz and Alex looked at each other in shock and then, Kalnaz said, "I will ask Leader Desslok to withdraw the protest."

Wildstar shut his eyes and said, "Very well. I withdraw our protest pending word from Queen Starsha."

Commodore Wildstar came in, saluted, and said, "Iscandar is on the line, Mister President."

Mendellsohn nodded and flicked on a small panel on his desk. "Ah, Queen Starsha…greetings."

Starsha said, "Alex, I have just picked up your thought. You would withdraw our protest?"

"Yes, Starsha. Apologies are being made; Sasha is now betrothed to the young man, Deke Wakefield."

"He is the one I have been having dreams about," said Starsha. "The one from whom the Shadow is slowly withdrawing."

"Yes," said Alex.

"I hope they marry tonight," said Starsha.

"That is being arranged, Your Highness," said Singleton.

"Nova, is she ready for this?" said Starsha. "You know I have charged you with her care."

"Yes, Starsha," said Nova. "She was upset. I was remiss in letting things be interrupted. But, things are working out. The future, I think, will be bright."

"Good. The future is not clear," said Starsha. "But, one possible path of the futire I see…I see our child a year from tonight, on a bed, naked, pregnant as you are, Nova, about to deliver Deke Wakefield his child. Now it makes more sense to me. Please let them consumate their marriage tonight, as well."

"I will arange that," said Nova. "Mister President?"

"The rooms I thought I had are not available, after all. Have you room in your home for them tonight?"

"We do. And Alex is staying with us," said Nova.

"That makes it better," said Starsha. "Nova, I know you know how important peace, quiet, and seclusion are for a wedding night."

"I sure do," said Nova with a deep blush. "They will spend the night at my home, then. After…uh…Derek and I enjoy _our_ night of seclusion..uh….I will even get up to make them all breakfast."

"I like that," chuckled Alex.

"Good," said Mendellsohn. "Singleton, when was the _Wasp_ scheduled to lift off for Iscandar?"

"0800 hours tomorrow morning," said the Commander.

"Hold them until 0900 or 1000, to give Wakefield a little more time; at least the night and morning with his bride," said Mendellsohn.

"Yessir," said the Commander.

"I forgive you, General Singleton," said Starsha. "I know now you acted only in the trouble of your heart in wanting to assign Deke to his post. I thus consider this matter closed. I…"

Then, another signal came in, and the screen split slightly as the image of a familiar blue face appeared. "Ah, General Kalnaz?" said a mellifluous, somewhat mocking voice. "Has the matter of this little insult to Iscandar and to the pilot Wakefield been solved yet?"

"It has, Leader Desslok," said Kalnaz. "The Earthlings' mistake was not intentional. It was more of a matter of timing than anything else. Starsha is now calm, and her daughter is well, as is, I understand, the Earthling boy Wakefield. They are making plans to let them marry tonight as compensation for the upset."

"Is this true, Starsha?" said Desslok.

"Yes, it is," she replied.

"Desslok," said Alex. "Once again, my little brother and his wife have set things up and smoothed over the rift in the Alliance."

Desslok laughed a low chuckle. "It appears young Wildstar and young Nova may have missed their true calling. They should have been diplomats. But, no. Derek Wildstar is too much like me. A warrior filled with honor. That is why he can do it. Very well, President Mendellsohn. Gamilon considers this matter closed if you do."

"We do, sir," said the President. "The first squadron leaves for Iscandar tomorrow morning so you can recall your 189th Squadron when they arrive."

"My thanks. My best wishes to you, Wakefield, and Sasha," said Desslok. At that, his part of the screen went blank. Starsha nodded and smiled once to Alex, and said, "Alex, make our child happy. I was always against her being on Earth. But…it seems…it has served a beautiful purpose, after all. Destiny will not now be disturbed."

"Thank you, Starsha," said Alex. He bowed his head as her image faded away.

"So what do we do now?" said the Commander.

"No more thoughts of resignation, Singleton. We need you, and it is forgiven," said Mendellsohn. "Get my staff in here. We have a wedding to arrange."

* * *

**2300 Hours…**

The lights were dimmed in the President's office as Deke Wakefield stood nervously before the President's desk with his heart pounding.

Behind the desk stood Father Likanski, who had put a blue stole on over his shoulders. He held a small book and stood in silence. Beside him, stood the President.

Nova had cleared a space to the right of the great desk of the President, and she stood there in silence, with an acoustic guitar strapped on over her gown, her feet bare, and with her eyes closed with Singleton and her father beside her. Derek stood near Brew, and behind them stood Mark and Holly Venture.

Then, as Deke whispered, "Brew, this waiting is driving me nuts…we're breathing air way above our pay grades…" two knocks came at the door. "Enter," said Singleton.

The door opened, and IQ-9 came in, carrying a small cushion with what Deke guessed were the rings. The small robot came up in relative silence and then said, "Mister President, Nova, when the second set of knocks comes, it is them. Nova, begin the music then."

"Thank you," said Nova in a soft voice.

A long moment passed, and there were two more knocks. Singleton barked, "Orders, HUT!"

Everyone executed an about-face and faced the doors as Nova strummed a few chords, and then began to quietly play a simple, sweet solo guitar version of Mendellsohn's "Wedding March," as tears ran down her cheeks as she played her gift for her niece.

The door opened, and to the guitar music, Sasha entered, walking on her father's arm.

Deke was shocked and pleased. They had found Sasha an appropriate white gown from somewhere that looked almost Iscandarian. She walked holding a tiny bouquet of flowers, and had no veil, but there were a few flowers in her hair. The gown was simple, unadorned, and stunning. It clung to every curve in an almost innocent fashion, leaving Sasha's arms bare. The gown went down about to her ankles, and Deke saw her toes showing with each step; she still went barefoot, but she no longer looked very forlorn.

Sasha looked solemn, but then she began to smile through her tears as she came up beside Deke. Nova then finished her song as Sasha and Deke turned to face each other before Father Likanski and IQ-9. She and Derek and the Commander, accompanied by her father, then stood behind Sasha and Alex while Brew, Mark and Holly Venture stood behind and beside Deke.

Finally, Likanski said, "This is a happy but somewhat out of the ordinary occasion. This is the second member of the Wildstar family I have had the honor of attending at the wedding of. For those who do not know, I officiated at the wedding of Derek Wildstar and Nova Forrester in 2201. It also looks as if, if we come through this war all right, by God's grace, I will have the honor of attending at the baptism of their children. Mister President, has the Marriage License been issued?"

"Yes, under special emergency dispensation, the normal examination procedures and blood tests have been waived, Father. I have also briefed all parties to the true identity of Miss …Petrovsky. There will be two marriage licenses…a public one for the normal records with the "Petrovsky" name on it and a birthplace of "St. Petersburg, Soviet Federal Union," and the true license, with Princess Sasha's true name, title, and birthplace, which will remain a classified and sealed court document. Karl Forrester has notarized both documents under Court Rule 825. The Commandant of the Space Fighters' Training School also agreed to waive Cadet Conduct Regulation 625 and has agreed to a PRP waiver for both Mister Wakefield and Miss Wildstar countersigned by Commanding General Singleton. Miss Wildstar is also granted twenty-four hours worth of compassionate leave for a "family emergency", and Mister Wakefield has been granted ten hours' liberty."

"Very well. We apologize for the legalities and delay," said Likanski. He cleared his throat and said, "Dearly beloved, we stand here assembled in the sight of men and God in order to consecrate the love of Senior Lieutenant Deke Wakefield and Midshipman Second Class, Her Royal Highness, Sasha Wildstar into the bond of holy matrimony. Marriage is an honorable and holy estate, not to be undertaken or entered into lightly. Have you two agreed to consider the needs and wants of the other in this marriage?"

"We have," said Deke and Sasha together as they held hands.

"The traditional Church posting of the banns of marriage in public for two weeks has been waived by me tonight. However, we need witnesses who will testify to the good character of the marriage candidates. Captain Mark Venture, do you swear and stand forth for the good character of Liuetenant Wakefield?"

"I swear to his good character," said Venture as he cleared his throat.

"Commanding General Hiram Singleton, do you swear and stand forth for the good character of Midshipman Wildstar?"

"I swear to her good character, Father," said the Commander.

"Very well. If there be any man or woman present who has just cause why these two should not be married, let him or her speak now or forever hold his peace."

There was only silence. _Thank God_, thought Deke, who was irrationally afraid of Dawn somehow bursting in and putting a stop to the whole thing.

"We shall proceed. They look like they want to get out of here, and this office is very stuffy," said Likanski as the others chuckled. "Lieutenant Deke Wakefield, do you swear to have and to hold, to love, honor, cherish, and obey Sasha as your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," gulped Deke as he wiped away his tears and Sasha's and looked into her beautiful eyes as she began to smile.

"Midshipman Sasha Wildstar, Your Royal Highness, do you swear to have and to hold, to love, honor, cherish, and obey Deke as your lawfully wedded husband, in sickness and in health for greater and for lesser and for richer and for poorer, until Death do you part?"

"I do," said Sasha as she wiped away Deke's tears with a flower she had plucked out of her hair.

"The rings," said Likanski as IQ-9 raised his arms and presented the rings.

Sasha took the first ring, a silver ring that fitted Deke perfectly, (and which symbolized the diamonds of Iscandar) and she slid it onto his finger, repeating after the priest as she said, "Deke, with this ring I thee wed…in sickness and in health, for greater and for lesser and for richer and for poorer, until Death do us part…and…well…you know…" She just gave up and smiled at him.

Likanski nodded, and Deke took a smaller silver ring and slid it onto a ring finger occupied only by an engagement ring that Sasha had worn for maybe ninety minutes. With the priest's help, he stammered, "Sasha, with this ring I thee wed…in sickness and in health…for…for…greater and for lesser and…and… for richer and for poorer, until Death do us part…and all that stuff…"

Then, Likanski smiled at them. "It is my happy and sacred duty to pronounce you man and wife. Mr. Wakefield, you may now kiss Her Royal Highness Mrs. Wakefield."

Deke and Sasha stared at each other, embraced, and kissed as everyone applauded. Then, a staffer of the President's came in and said, "Sir, Senator Garrison wants that meeting now, and demands to know what the damn hold-up was."

"Tell him it was personal business," said Mendellsohn. "Oh. By the way, what just happened here now is classified. You may now leave…"

"See you back on the ship…Dekesticks!" laughed Brew. "Man, you are sure one lucky dog! Gonna do the deed tonight?"

"What do you _think_?" said Sasha with a big wide grin through her tears. "We have a spare room waiting at the Wildstars' tonight."

"Man, you'd better not screw this up!" laughed Brew.

"I do not plan to," said a blushing Wakefield as he kissed Sasha again.

Then, the group began to clear out of the office of the President as the business of State went on.

* * *

**2350 Hours**

**Las Vegas**…

"Well, what do you think?" said Jefferson Hardy as he hugged Dawn against him in bed. They had a suite in a casino in Las Vegas, in beautiful surroundings.

The bedclothes were rumpled, their clothes were strewn about the place, and Dawn lay totally naked (having even taken off her star pendant for once) sweaty, achy, and yet very satisfied on Jeff's naked stomach like a cat as she lifted a bare leg slowly, wiggling her toes as she felt both a blessed combination of a little pain and much pleasure in her body; the usual portion of a newlywed wife…a young woman who had not been initmate with anyone for many years.

"I think you gave us a great time tonight," said Dawn.

"The feelin's mutual, Missus Hardy," said Jeff as Dawn traced a little figure 8 around his navel. "Hey…that tickles!"

"I like making you smile," said Dawn. "Aches a little…no one's been through that particular pair of gates for a few years…"

"And…?"

"I don't want to talk about my prior lovers anymore, Jeff. They don't exist. Only you exist now."

"That's good," he said as he kissed Dawn's hair again. "That's…very good…."

And, at that, they kissed again. They would rest tonight, but not sleep…

* * *

**2346 Hours**

**Tokyo** **Megalopolis….**

Nova Wildstar was crying with utter happiness under the warm water of the shower in the bathroom in their master bedroom.

She and Derek and the others had been home for maybe ten minutes.

In the privacy of their bedroom, the young lovers had shed their formal clothes as quickly as they had been able to without tearing them off.

Then, they had ducked into the shower, where they had decided, that with Doctor Sane's permission, they would begin re-consumating their marriage.

Their passion had been quick, insane, and breathtaking. Nova had read about how pregnant women became more…responsive…because of the hormonal changes, but she would have had her socks knocked off (if she had been wearing any) by the sudden intesnity of her responses as Derek stroked and caressed her under the warm water. She reciprocated with him, and there was barely enough time for him to take her standing up in the shower before their dance ended with an explosion of pleasure that almost knocked them over.

They were weeping with pleasure a minute later as they dried off.

* * *

In the meantime, unaware of the goings-on in the Wildstars' master bedroom, Deke Wakefield was taking a new look at the Wildstars' living room as Sasha walked him around. (Through her senses, Sasha had a better idea what was going on; she was feeling enough of Uncle and Auntie's passion to drive her out of her mind, as if being with Deke and awaiting her wedding night was't bad enough…) 

When they had gotten here, Nova had asked them to wait for a moment. When they were allowed in to one of the spare bedrooms, they found a sweatshirt and sweatpants of Derek's laid on the bed for Deke, and Sasha found a shorty white bathrobe trimmed in baby blue with a blue belt for her; it was actually some of Nova's wardrobe. Sasha had excused herself, going into the small bathroom in the corner of the bedroom while Deke had taken the hint and changed into the battered but comfortable white sweat outfit.

Deke and Sasha held hands as they looked at things, stopping every now and then to kiss or hug. Deke was interested in the curios, but he found Sasha's long bare legs to be somewhat more interesting. She was showing a bit of cleavage at the neckline of the robe, and while they had embraced at one point, Deke had run his hands under the robe at the hem just far enough to find out that beneath the robe, Sasha went naked in a fashion that seemed almost startlingly innocent.

A vidscreen was on, and not far away, Alex Wildstar sat in a large recliner in a t-shirt and jeans, holding a beer in his hand and watching some late-night video talk show comedian or host give a dumb monologue he didn't seem very interested in.

"Where's the man of the house?" said Deke as he and Sasha looked at Alex.

"Derek's getting Nova ready for bed. Little brother did say he'd be out with Nova to give you a few good wishes as you launch the ship of your marriage. Then they have business of their own to tend to…"

Then, a moment later, Derek Wildstar came into the room holding hands with Nova. Derek had on sweatpants and a t-shirt, while Nova wore a robe similar to Sasha's, except that hers was trimmed in pink with a pink belt.

"Well," said Nova as she ran a hand through slightly damp hair. "It looks like we won't be long…just wanted to say…good night…and good luck to the newlyweds…"

"Thanks," said Deke who noticed that Derek's hair was also wet.

"Auntie, are you all right? You'd better sit down," said Sasha.

"Sorry, just a bit..shaky…long day," lied Nova as she swayed a little on her bare feet. Not even she wanted to quite confess in public that…well….she had just had her brains screwed out. She walked over to a chair and then sat down, saying, as she sat down, "Well…I…"

Sasha gasped a little as Nova sat down and the bow securing her aunt's robe popped loose. The belt abruptly fell to the chair, and for a moment, Nova's pregnant belly (and everything else) came out into full view. Nova glanced down at her nakedness, gasped, and pulled the robe shut with her hand as Sasha and Deke averted their eyes.

"Uh…I didn't…mean to do…that," stammered Nova.

"It's all right…you couldn't help it…" said Derek as he blushed. "I…"

Alex glanced over, looked down quickly at the rug, and said, "Too bad I'm flying solo tonight in the third bedroom. Nova, that glance reminded me a bit of Starsha. It looks like you're carrying the babies high like Starsha always did. Sasha, your mother looked a bit like that when she was carrying you. I wonder what you'll look like, when…"

"When what?" said Sasha.

"When your husband makes you pregnant, Princess. It is bound to happen sooner or later…"

"Oh…," said Sasha as fear ran through her like cold water. "Mother…Did her robe ever pop open, Daddy?" Sasha asked as Nova blushed more than ever. She got up again, trying to keep herself decent as she fumbled for the belt of her robe.

Alex chuckled at the memory. "It was a good day if we could keep a robe _on_ your mother in the palace apartments. When it was just her and I, she liked to just shed the maternity dresses and go naked. Like you did on that beach once, Nova, when I surprised you when you were out of your bikini when you were sunning that day…"

"I wish I could do that, now…" muttered Nova. "My stomach is aching, my back hurts…I feel like a water balloon…my breasts hurt…my feet hurt…"

Then, Nova stumbled and fell again against the chair, banging her hip against it as the robe fell open again. Nova looked shocked, and then, she just gave up and put her face into the cushion and began to cry while Derek ran to her side.

"Nova?"

"You got me like this…I'm a useless piece of crap!" cried Nova as she pulled Derek's hair and then immediately felt guilty and gave him a deep, searching kiss.

",,,nova…" said Derek as he held and cuddled his wife while trying to both make her decent and examine her to see if she had…begun to bleed anywhere. "Mrs. Wildstar," he said in a soft voice but just loud enough for everyone to hear. "You are _not_ a piece of crap. In fact, you happen to look very attractive pregnant, even half-naked in a robe that is coming off you," he said as he tried to dress her.

"My breasts are burning….irritated..I…"

Sasha surprised them by coming over. "Then just bare then, Nova. We've all seen everything on you, anyhow. Heck, with twins, you may have times when your blouse…or dress… just has to come open when they get hungry at once…"

"Like my mom went through recently," said Nova as she stood up, letting gravity take over and letting her breasts, stomach and body simply show as Derek held her hand and stroked her cheek. She took a deep breath. It _did_ feel better with nothing on her tender breasts and stomach.

Deke finally got up the courage to glance over at Nova, and he was again powerfully reminded of Sasha Morningstar, nearly naked just like that in his memory in her ragged dress and battered sandals as she nursed her child against her pregnant stomach before he had accidentially killed her that terrible night in the underground city.

Deke then shivered as another image intruded; that of Nova nearly stripped…and then, for a moment, lying there helpless and naked that day in that terrible shuttle as she lay convulsing in pain, covered with her own blood from her wounded shoulder.

Then, he thought of Sasha like that…pregnant…and he looked at her smiling at him and gulped, wondering how he could go through with this.

"Is she all right, Derek?" said Alex.

"Yeah…" said Derek. "Nova, I'll take you back to bed…I promise you, my love, you'll be in my arms and out of that robe in two shakes of a cat's tail."

"Just like our shower?" said Nova as she shivered for a moment. "Oh, good, darling….good!"

They kissed while Derek loosely held her robe closed, and then they vanished, not to be seen again until after dawn.

Deke and Sasha then looked at each other and looked at Alex. "I'm all right," said the older Wildstar. "I'll finish my beer and get to bed in about half an hour. We have to be up early tomorrow morning. And this is where I butt out. I'm sure you two know what to….do. Now, I strongly recommend, Sasha, you get in there and do it."

"Yessir," she said, saluting her father.

As Deke left, holding Sasha's hands, Alex winked at him and gave a thumbs-up. Deke did the same, sending back the near-universal pilot's signal for "have a good mission."

He was sure they would have one.

* * *

In their bedroom, Deke and Sasha faced each other with the door closed and the curtains and shade at the window drawn. Deke had removed his socks, and he dug his toes into the buff-colored carpet, surprised at its thickness as Sasha gently kissed his cheek. 

"What a quiet place," he said.

"This is my room here when I stay over on liberty or leave and get away from the Academy," said Sasha. "It's always been quiet. There have been times I've had this whole house all to myself when Auntie and Uncle are away in space. I sort of house-sit for them. Uncle Derek has a beautiful house. I hope ours will be just as beautiful."

"I'll do my best…my salary…well…it's not the greatest…"

"Don't worry; I'll buy it for us here on Earth after the war's over," said Sasha as Deke's eyebrows went up.

"I thought you said once you were barely getting by…"

"With what I have, it's true," said Sasha. "In theory, I have several million credits in some kind of Trust Fund in some bank or something set up by the Royal House. I really don't know how it works, but I'm very rich on paper. In actuality, it's very hard for me to access it. I mostly get by on my cadet stipend and a little allowance Nova gives me. Of course, I couldn't tell you that…but now you know…"

Deke smiled. He noticed one sound; the ticking of a small clock up on the simulated-walnut wall of the bedroom near a built-in bookcase. The nautical-looking clock chimed midnight with soft, sweet little bells.

"I think that's our signal," said Sasha. "Untie my robe," she whispered.

Deke, with shaking hands, undid the bow on Sasha's robe and let the velvet tie slip to the floor.

He finally looked at her naked body for the first time as the clock stopped chiming and April 28th ended at last. A new day had just begun, in more ways than one.

Sasha, naked as he had guessed she was, simply popped out of the robe a moment later as she went up on her toes and stretched.

Deke looked at her with utter disbelief; he had seen her form many times, swathed in her skin-tight Midshipman's uniform, but he had never guessed how elegant, long, and curvy she was. Her breasts were firm, round, and quite pert; she had a flat, well-defined stomach, a navel like a doll, hips that curved just right, and thighs and legs that seemed to go on forever.

"I'm hot in this," she whispered as Deke noticed she was trembling. "Please make me naked, Deke…"

Deke laid his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek, and then her neck, going over to her mouth as he stripped the robe off her shoulders and let it fall to the carpet.

Deke was feeling as if he was going to burst out of his sweat pants when Sasha pulled them down with one hand like a drowning woman.

"Those must have been driving you mad," she said in a soft voice as she beheld him exposed for the first time. "You're beautiful, Deke…"

"Uh…thanks…"

"Shirt off, too," said Sasha as they both worked to strip Deke of his shirt. "Good, good," she whispered as she cuddled against his well-defined chest and kissed it. "Now carry me to that bed…please…"

Deke did so, and as they fell into bed together, they noticed they were shaking.

The way Sasha fell on the bed, her legs were natually open for him without an ounce of shame. He lay beside her and began to stroke and tickle her inner thigh as she shifted her leg, shut her eyes, and wiggled her toes. Sasha kissed Deke, and shocked him a little as she touched his most sensitive spot and let her hands wander.

"I hope I'm not hurting you," she said. "I'm really clumsy at this. Kind of…out of…practice…"

"Am I hurting you?" said Deke as he finally caressed her most tender parts and saw her gasp. "I'm not exactly in practice, either. Hell, I haven't been with a woman for five years ago as of today."

"Exactly?"

Deke nodded. "My old girlfriend…right before we broke up that day, let me sleep with her one last time in the afternoon. She took it like she was getting a flu shot. I knew then something stank in Denmark."

Sasha gasped, "Deke, what you're doing to me, does not feel like a flu shot!"

They laughed and fell against each other. "Ready?" whispered Deke.

Sasha nodded. "But I'm scared. We didn't think of contraception…not at all. I could end up pregnant tonight."

"Whatever will be, will be," said Deke. "I'm…scared…too…"

"Let's be scared together," said Sasha. She smiled and shut her eyes as she opened her legs and awaited her husband as, a moment later, as they trembled with fear and anticipation, he took her with all of the gentleness of a man deflowering an utter virgin.

The rest…

…was pure bliss….

They barely slept at all that night.

They did not need to sleep.

Nor did they want to.

* * *

Deke Wakefield sort of got to sleep at last around 0430 that morning. His sleep was so hazy and weird and filled with strange dreams that he didn't know where reality ended and where fantasy began. 

The alarm went off noisily at 0530. Deke sat up in bed, covered with sweat, covered with all sorts of things, and he was shocked as hell to find Sasha dozing innocently on his chest.

"Is it morning, yet, ddeeeekeee?" said Sasha in a tiny, slurred voice.

"Then I wasn't dreaming that part?" he said as he looked at his new bride's naked body.

"Oh, it was a dream, but it was very, _very_ real," said Sasha as she kissed him. She looked at the clock. "Some honeymoon," she said with a half-smile and a half-grimace. "0530. That old clock said 5:30 in the morning. You'd better start getting ready. Nova's up already making breakfast."

"How do you know that?"

"I can sense things…hear things…remember? You get the shower first…I'll follow. Your..uniform…is in the bag. Try not to put your heavy boots on; Auntie doesn't like us wearing shoes in the house most of the time. The most she wears are slippers or flip-flops when the floor is cold."

"Okay," said Deke as he kissed Sasha and they parted.

* * *

A few minutes later, after which Sasha followed him into the shower, Deke came out in his EDF blues and socks and he went downstairs to the kitchen. 

He beheld a scene that made him smile a little.

Nova was up, clad in a white minidress and flat pink sandals, and she was busily frying up bacon with one hand at the large stove built into the modernistic countertop while she balanced an enormous bowl of cereal on the counter and attacked it with a spoon as she cooked.

"Morning," Nova muttered with food in her mouth. "Sorry for eatin' like a pig. Kids are making me so hungry."

Deke looked at the counter and saw a small jar of pickles sitting there. It was empty.

"Sorry," laughed Nova. "That was my appetizer. This Quisp is my salad, what I'm making along with the eggs and sausage and pancakes is breakfast. I made plenty of coffee. Attack the pot. There's lots of cream and sugar."

While Deke was making coffee (and was grateful for how strong it looked, knowing he had to fly a mission today on little sleep) Derek came in, wearing jeans and an old striped rugby shirt. He grinned wickedly and turned on a rock station at full volume.

Nova screamed, abandoned her food, and whipped the nozzle attached to a hose meant for spraying down dishes out of the sink next to the dishwasher. While Derek laughed, Nova squirted his shirt and face with the hose.

"Good morning!" said Derek.

"Good morning, cowboy of outer space!" said Nova with a big smile on her face. "Why'd you have to scare me like that?"

"How'd you know it was me?"

"Only _you_ put on that stupid station on the radio," snapped Nova as she ran over and put on a station playing sprightly chamber music on violins. After Nova changed the station, she stuck out her tongue at her husband and Deke looked very amused as he stirred up his coffee..and then felt very depressed. These two were on leave and would go back to their simple married life together for a bit after Deke went on that Godamned Carrier.

Sasha would be here on Earth, waiting for him…by herself.

Deke felt very morose as he sat down at the table and drank his coffee.

A moment later, Alex Wildstar came into the room; all approximately 6 feet 4 inches worth of him, dressed in a plain white button-down shirt, grey pants, and bare feet. To Deke's surprise, he looked at Derek and said, "Morning, little brother. Knock knock."

"who's there?" responded Derek.

Nova rolled up her eyes, and as she sidled beside Deke, she whispered. "Those two flag officers are idiots. Ignore them. They're reverting to their childhood together."

"Lettuce," said Alex in his deep voice.

"Lettuce who?" said Derek.

"Lettuce in, it's cold out here. Your turn, Derek!"

"Okay, knock knock!"

"Who's there, Derek?"

"Isabel."

"Isabel who?" said Alex.

"Isabel working, I had to knock!"

"BOOO!" yelled Nova. "That one stank!"

Then, Nova ran to her food and flipped it in the pan as she heard the chamber orchestra on the radio beginning to play a strings' version of Bach's "Passicaglia and Fugue in C Minor."

"Yuk," said Nova. "I don't want to hear that this morning."

"Why?" said Deke.

"That was Lord Ekogaru's favorite, played on some mad church organ-like instrument he built into that Fortress of his. He was very weird," said Derek.

Nova finally got a station where some contemporary blues band was playing "_The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down_." Nova sang along in a cute, sort of sleepy and scratchy alto as Sasha came into the room.

She was simply dressed in a blue top, white shorts, and white sandals. She ran over, kissed Deke, and said, "Careful with the hair, it's still wet, deekee…"

"Deekee?" said Alex with his eyebrows going up. "That's a new one."

"Should I tell them all what Starsha calls _you_, knucklehead?" said Derek with a grin.

"You'd never dare!" screamed Sasha.

"_Misha_," said Derek with an evil grin.

Alex glared at Derek while Deke said, "Guys, I'm missing something. That sounds Russian or something."

"It's Iscandarian," snapped Sasha. "Diminutive form of rabbit. We have similar animals on Iscandar, called _Mishink_. They eat the grass on the hills. I once had a white one as a pet. She also uses the English Terran variant of it, best translated as…'honey bunny'…"

Deke looked at the tall, imposing form of Alex Wildstar glaring at them, and was incredulous to learn that the Queen of Iscandar called him "honey bunny".

"If this ever gets out in the Fleet," said Alex. "All of you are dead. Dead, dead, _dead_!"

They laughed at that over breakfast.

* * *

Deke was very morose when they left the house with his bags and DJ. His expensive dress uniform and some other things had been left at the Wildstars' in the closet in Sasha's room. 

Derek was driving, Nova was in the front seat with him, and Sasha sat with Deke in the back of the aircar. For security reasons, Alex had remained at home and said his goodbyes to Deke (_his new son-in-law, a fighter pilot like himself..) _privately.

"This is supposed to be a six-month deployment; maybe longer," said Deke.

"I have that last year at the Academy to complete…maybe," said Sasha. "I'm going to miss you so much, darling…"

They embraced and cuddled. _What a damn short honeymoon_, he thought. Before they had left, Nova had taken a lot of pictures of he and Sasha together, and quite a few pictures of Sasha alone.

Because things were classified, and because Sasha was still a cadet, Deke was also not able (for now) to tell anyone except Brew (who already knew) that Sasha was his wife now. Sasha thought the idea of a secret marriage was rather cute and romantic, but Deke wasn't sure he felt that way.

When they got to the dockyards, Deke shouldered his bags and DJ and began to go up the gangplank. His plane was aboard the carrier already, but after liftoff, after he checked in on the ship and verified his new Group's flight plans as commander, he would have to fly off the _Wasp_, land at the fighter base, pick up the rest of his squadron, and then fly them to the ship, which was in orbit. And that would just be the first of his flying chores this day.

For once, Deke was not looking forward to flying as they walked down the quay to the _Wasp_ where lots of other loved ones were being seen off by their wives, girlfriends, parents, and families.

Sasha held his hand as they walked along in silence. She was smiling, but tears were running down her face.

"Why are you smiling, Sasha?"

"Trying to cheer you up. But I don't feel much like smiling…"

"Me, neither," said Deke. Sasha saw that he was crying, too, even though the breeze coming in from the sea was pleasantly cool and the sun was pleasantly warm.

_It'll be a beautiful day here on Earth; and the surfing would have been perfect with Sasha at my side,_ thought Deke. _Instead, I have to go on that damned ship…_

When they got to the gangplank, Sasha was openly crying. Deke looked at her, hugged her, kissed her, and held her.

"I wish I could take you with me," he said.

"We know that can't happen," she said. But, then a vision came to her mind. "But, I think we will meet again…"

"When?"

"In the next few months…it is not clear. This is goodbye, Deke, my love, my husband," she whispered. "It is not farewell…"

He kissed Sasha again and stepped away, as a crying Sasha went to her aunt's arms for comfort. Then, Nova, who was crying herself, hugged both of them very hard, and he got to kiss Sasha on the mouth one more time, and accepted a kiss from Nova (_his Aunt Nova, now.._) on his cheek.

Then, Derek shook hands with him. "We're going to miss you, Deke. I hope we can beat them soon so we can all be together again…"

"Yeah, me, too….sir…"

"Oh, cripes," said Wildstar as he grabbed Deke in a rough brotherly embrace. "Be a great pilot," he whispered. "Come back home safe to your wife, got that…? don't leave her a widow…"

"I got that, Wildstar," Deke replied.

"Good flying," said Wildstar.

Wakefield stood back, and snapped a proper salute.

Wildstar responded, with his face looking very grim under his Naval cap.

Deke nodded, and did an about-face and didn't dare look back.

He didn't know for sure, but he swore when he looked at Wildstar for the last time that tears were going down his cheeks, too.

_The great hero, the cowboy of outer space, crying for me and Sasha?_ Deke thought. _Must be his way of saying he knows this sucks for all of us._

_And it does…_

…_it just sucks…_

* * *

**To Be Continued...**


	5. Chapter 5

**ALTERNATE TALES OF THE STAR FORCE**

**STAR BLAZERS—RADNAR'S GAME**

**Being the sixth part of **_**THE NEW COMET**_**-- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz**

* * *

This Act is being completed with the Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)--_Freddo_

* * *

**ACT FIVE: NEW LIVES AND STRANGE PLOTS**

* * *

**I. ANOTHER MEETING**

**Planet Earth**

**The Denver Megalopolis**

**Staveler** **Airport**

**Thursday: April 30, 2207**

**1130 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

Karl Forrester was back in the Denver area now with his wife Teri, since he had taken a red-eye out of the Tokyo Megalopolis in the early morning of the 29th.

He and Teri and their youngest children were waiting for two passengers to debark from a plane at Gate Number 25.

Finally, after the jetway from the sub-orbital jumpjet transport was opened, Teri's eyes lit up as she saw a young couple emerging from the crowd.

The young man had a tangled mop of dark brown hair, and he wore an EDF flight jacket, white pullover sweatshirt, jeans, and boots. The young, pregnant woman whom he was holding hands with wore a cute, short maternity minidress, white straw hat, and matching woven straw sandals.

"Nova!" cried Teri as she ran up to her oldest daughter and hugged her. She gave her a kiss, and then kissed Commodore Derek Wildstar on the cheek, making him blush. Karl came up, gave his eldest daughter a kiss, and then shook hands with Derek as David and Aurora ran up to their sister and hugged her.

"Nova, are the babies ready to come out yet?" said Aurora.

"No, honey, they aren't," laughed Nova as she tousled her young sister's hair.

Aurora had on a little yellow sundress and white sandals of her own. She stood up on tiptoe and said, "Pllleeeaaase have those babies now, sis?"

"Not now and not _here_!" laughed Nova as she accepted another hug from her little brother, who had on a little-boy style suit with shorts.

"Are we all here yet?" said Karl.

"Not yet," said another somewhat older boy in a suit as he came off the plane.

Teri's eyebrows went up as she said, "Nova, who's this?"

"Oh, yes…he came to stay with us last night, and his mother, a friend of ours from the Iscandarian Embassy staff, gave him permission to travel with us for a few days," said Nova. "Mom, Dad, this is Johanthan Hartnell-Iiyama….a very dear friend of ours. He just turned fourteen. His birthday was January the 11th… off when we were in space."

"My mom and dad had a nice birthday for me, nothing like my ninth birthday, thank heavens," said Jonathan.

"Why?" asked Teri.

Jonathan began to sniff and said, "Around the time of my ninth birthday, my parents took my sister and I with them on a cruise on the spaceliner _Westhampton_ _Beach_. It was one of the first ships attacked in the Rikasha Incident. The Rikashans attacked the ship, killed my parents, and killed my sister and took me prisoner. I….celebrated my ninth birthday in a cell on a Rikashan ship wearing just a dirty rag…"

"That's terrible!" cried Teri as she hugged him.

"I was eventually rescued, and I ended up on Iscandar. There, Conor and Astra…Astra is the Crown Princess and now the Earth Ambassador to Iscandar…they became my parents. Mister and Mrs. Wildstar are my godparents."

"You sound like you've been through a lot," said Karl as they walked along.

"Believe me, I have been," said Jonathan. "I have been…"

* * *

At the same time, in the Tokyo Megalopolis (where it was the First of May already thanks to the International Date Line), Conor of Iscandar was sitting on the bridge of a spacecraft carrier in an underground dock.. He had, as a symbol of Pellian-Iscandarian unity, been "adopted" by Astrena recently, and he thus now had the "surname" of D'Shal.

The carrier was the former EDF _Yorktown_-class spacecraft carrier _Implacable_. She had taken heavy damage in a battle near Pluto with the R'Khells in February of this year, and her place in Fifth Fleet was already taken by the new spacecraft carrier _Ranger,_ which had gone on station in late March. She had been under consideration for repair as a training ship when the Earth Defense Council had offered her to Alex Wildstar and the Iscandarian Government in April. Queen Starsha had not wanted to accept a wave-motion gun equipped large capital ship like this until Alex had convinced her it was for the good of Iscandar.

Now, the newly-promoted Fleet Captain Conor D'Shal of Iscandar was watching as work continued on "his" carrier, which would leave Earth in a few weeks for Iscandar escorted by two EDF fleet cruisers and some newly built Iscandarian Corvettes to be the nucleus of the new Royal Iscandarian Defense Fleet. While Conor was the Captain of the new ship, it would eventually be Prince Consort Alex Wilsdtar's flagship when the entire RIDF was in action. The ship already had a new name; the _Princess Astra_, and a new pennant number; ISCV-1. Its gold EDF markings and anchor marks were being painted out and replaced with the purple markings and eight-pointed star of Iscandar.

Conor sat in thought behind the Captain's station on the carrier, pulling up status screens on the computer, He was lost in thought until he felt a strong hand coming down on his shoulder. He looked over and smiled as he said, "_Alex_!"

"How's work going on our flagship, Conor?"

"They just finished repairing her main guns today, and they're still working on her wave engine. They've been switching people back and forth between this ship and that new Earth space battlship they're building…what is she called?"

"The _Nagato_, Conor. She's due to be launched in a public ceremony in just a few days. I don't think we'll have the same opportunity here on Earth. We're supposed to get this ship home and get ready for wargames with the Gamilons in a few weeks."

"So you think you'll be taking her home?"

Alex nodded. "We're supposed to have a full crew by then; roughly one-third Iscandarians, one-third Terrans, and one-third Pellians. Everyone's being issued EDF Standard Duty Blues with different recognition markers; anchors for the Earth people, stars for our own, and the emblem of the dagger for the Pellians."

"I've been working with the Pellians," said Conor as he got up, brushing his beard. "They're really tough, a really mean bunch. They're even impressing the EDF officers and men assigned to this command."

"Good," said Alex. "Starsha and Astra won't agree, but the tougher, the better. I have the feeling this war is not going to end up in a pretty fashion…"

"I have the same feeling," said Conor.

* * *

**II. SASHA'S REVELATIONS**

**Planet Earth**

**The Space Fighters' Training School**

**Friday: May 1, 2207**

**1530 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

Later that day, Sasha was back at the Space Fighters' Training School in a very melancholy mood. She had been back to class, but wasn't showing much interest in anything.

She had talked with her roommate for a while, but they hadn't made good conversation, so she sat alone in her blue and white Midshipman's uniform for a while before deciding to get something out of her locker.

She finally opened the window, letting the warm spring breeze blow her hair around before she began to concentrate and thought of herself in some neverland, a time and space where, to her, her room was a vast space filled with stars, nebulae, and the blackness of space. The furniture of her room was still there, but the bulkheads, deck, hatch that led to the passage, and windows had disappeared.

Sasha continued to look in her locker as the space she was in, half in, and half out of This World, continued to blow with a lonely breeze. She was looking in her locker for something. She had a bit of a time finding it, and she hoped she had remembered to bring it from Derek and Nova's, where she had had it sitting in a closet, but she finally dragged out a blue and white gig bag with a shoulder strap on it.

Sasha opened the bag, and she then opened the inner case; a case that held an alto saxophone in brass.

Sasha sat on her bunk, put a fresh reed in the instrument, and got it nice and wet.

She hadn't played for several months, but she was glad that Aunt Nova had taught her how to play when she had been younger. Her Aunt wasn't a virtuoso with the sax, but their joint playing sessions had always brought a smile to her face, especially at times when her growing pains had given her bad fevers and had kept her in bed. There were times Sasha thought she might have lost her mind if Auntie hadn't been around to help her by getting her to come out of her shell by playing a duet.

Sasha got the new reed in successfully and blew a honk or two on the mouthpiece. Then, she cleaned the cork at the top of her instrument and set everything up, putting the cord around her neck as she took a few breaths, getting her fingers on the proper keys.

At first, Sasha just played a few scales, wincing a little at her sour notes, that made weird honking noises (similar to the sort her Auntie made on her sax or clarinet when she hadn't played in several weeks.) Then, Sasha began to tap her foot and play a slow blues piece as she ignored the tears running down her cheeks.

She stopped as a few weird notes that she didn't play came out of the sax.

_I didn't play those_, she thought. _Who did?_

Sasha got the urge to play again. To her horror and surprise, her fingers were playing a melody she didn't recognize…playing in a weird blues fashion. She realized after a few notes that something…or someone…was leading her to play a Bach fugue on the sax.

_Why the hell am I suddenly playing the Passicaglia and Fugue in C Minor_? Sasha thought_. I don't even like the damn song!_

Then, something that looked like a ghost with red eyes showed up in this strange Neverland as the stars began to fade and everything went almost black.

"Welcome to my Neverland, Little Princess," said a deep, mocking voice from beneath the black cowl the ghost was wearing. "Do you like it here?"

Sasha pulled her lips away from the sax and glared at the weird spectre. "No, I _don't_ like it here. I was trying to make this astral space nice when you had to show up. Who are you, anyway? Something left over from last Halloween?"

The Entity laughed. "We have not been properly _introduced_, Midshipman Second Class Sasha Wakefield."

"How did you know that? It's a secret!"

"I was _there_ when you married him, there when your aunt and uncle rutted like animals in the shower that evening, and there to watch you and _him_ rutting, screwing, and doing bizarre things like animals that night as the Dawn came on little claw-like cat's feet. You were _very_ entertaining, Sasha."

"I take it I know your name, you sick piece of filth?"

"Say it," chuckled the Ghost.

"You're the legendary Ekogaru, aren't you? I will not do you any sort of honor by giving you any of your so-called titles," snapped Sasha. "By all that is right and true, you should be dead and in some dark dimension someplace eating at yourself alone like a virus."

Ekogaru laughed. "I have learned how to _transcend_ Death, Sasha. I will live forever. You and Deke will not. Unless you join Me."

"If you think I'll join you like Yvona Josiah, you need your head examined. Or whatever is left of it," snapped Sasha. "You look like something that should have been decently buried in a grave about fifty years ago. You're _dead!_"

Ekogaru laughed and said, "Join me, my dear, or you might just die in childbirth. Along with your Auntie Nova. I intend to be there the night her children are born to take her life. _You_ will be the next to go."

Sasha just glared at him and screamed into his face in rage. She wanted to strike him, but he disappeared with an acid laugh as everything went black.

* * *

Suddenly, the whole strange astral landscape vanished, and Sasha was back in her room. _Did I really experience that? Did I really see __him_Sasha thought in despair.

_He lives, unfortunately,_ came the voice of her mother in her mind. _Forgive me. I have been trying to protect you from him over the past few weeks. This time, it did not work…_

"Why are you hiding him from us?" screamed Sasha.

"What he is is a dark spirit of hatred trying to take shape again in the body of an unfortunate petty-minded Earthling he has possessed," said Starsha as everything went dim and her spirit appeared before her daughter before the sunset that had suddenly appeared in a new, much more tranquil, astral space where Starsha had transported Sasha to so they could talk in peace. "He is causing much hatred and trouble. His greatest power is in terror and phantasms. He has other powers I don't even care to think of because they are so twisted and morbid…"

"What is his thing with twisting life, Mother?"

"He, Sasha, has fathered a boy, a twisted version of you, that he created by twisting the genetic structure of a human child conceived by a clone of Yvona Josiah and the body he has possessed."

"Who has he possessed?"

"Why, Sasha?"

"I'd love to find him and break his neck. _Tha_t would solve a lot of problems."

"I wish I knew," said Starsha sadly. "He does a very good job of keeping the face of the Earthling he has possessed obscured. Also, the Earthling is slowly dying as Ekogaru grows stronger. Eventually, given enough years, there will be nothing left of the poor Earthling but a husk. Even I pity him. And Ekogaru will again possess a body to do his sick work."

"We have to find him, Mother! He threatened me and Aunt Nova with…."

"The loss of your children?"

Sasha nodded. "Am I carrying Deke's child yet?"

"No, but you will…when the right time comes. Do not forbid him his martial perogatives when you two are reunited. It would be interference with Destiny."

"When will _Destiny_ quit screwing around with me and my head and my LIFE, Mother? When will I live a normal life someplace?"

"Much has to happen," said Starsha. "Oh, you are so much like my late sister at times…and there is so much I wish I could show you…"

"Then why don't you reveal it and save us all a metric shitload of trouble?" snapped Sasha.

"I dare not. The future is not clear to see at all times. You know that. Even as I slowly increase my powers by way of my greater practice and meditation, I see how much I do NOT know and cannot control. The wiser I grow, I find that I know less. I don't even know if I have interfered enough…or too much for everyone's good, Sasha."

"Mother, one can't help _interfereing_. It's part of living. And if you had interfered sooner, Desslok would have been defeated earlier than he was. Deke would still have his family. Uncle would still have his parents. And maybe Aunt Nova's Aunt Yvona would have remained sane and been able to live out her life as a normal person."

"If only you knew, Child," sighed Starsha. "Rest in peace tonight. You will be troubled no more. I can at least tell you that…"

"Thanks," said Sasha as she shut her eyes and turned away from her Mother.

* * *

Sasha came out of her astral landscape and began to play her saxophone again. This time, she consoled herself by playing _Moonlight Serenade_. It sounded beautiful, and it calmed her mind a great deal.

Sasha was beginning to play a second time as she began to get a major headache. It was something that occassionally happened when she stretched her powers too far. She realized then that she had been stretching her powers to their limit to keep her sanity in the sick astral presence of Ekogaru a few minutes ago…or was it a few hours ago?

She looked at the chrono on her desk. The time was now 1630. _I was only floating around in and out for an hour?_ Sasha thought. _It felt like years? Gets like that when I leave this plane…gets weird…_

Then, a moment later, a knock came at the door.

Sasha came to attention and yelled "Officer on the deck! ATTENTION!"

Instead, someone opened the door, and a young woman in a black dress and unusual anklewrap sandals came in.

"Nova?" she said as she looked at the young face. "I thought you were in Denver?"

"I'm not Nova," the woman replied in a lilting, strangely-accented voice that sounded a little like her mother's. "For one thing, the hair is a bit longer," she said as she did a pirouette on her toes that made her hip-length honey-blonde hair whip around. "For another thing, I wasn't even born on Earth."

"Who are you?"

"Think of your Recent Military History course, Sasha of Iscandar," she whispered. As Sasha's eyes went wide, the young woman shut the door and said, "I know they call you "Petrovsky", but I know you are someone else. I can see things that no one else can. And your mother just asked me to stop in and comfort you. I was watching my husband do some guest-lecturing today in a Gunnery Class, so I've been walking around the campus all day. My name is Aliscea Rosstowski, late of Pellias. I can teach you things your mother wouldn't want you to know. Like this," said Aliscea as she looked around. Then, she opened her purse and pulled out a small ashtray and pack of cigarettes. Aliscea said, "Pardon me. Filthy habit I picked up from Paul. Good old Reom 120's. Nothing to relax you like tobacco when you need it."

Aliscea then put a cigarette in her mouth, puffed, and, to Sasha's surprise, Aliscea put up an index finger, shut her eyes, and made fire wink from the tip of her finger. She used it to light the cigarette, and took a deep drag. "Want some? It is relaxing."

"You will give yourself cancer with that dried weed. I've talked with Deke about that habit to no avail, so I live with it," snapped Sasha. "And if the tac officer smells that smoke in here, I'll be marching with a rifle again this weekend."

"We all have vices, dear. And I will make sure no one smells a thing. I have that power. What about you and your candy?"

"Oh, that…why are you here?"

"To show you how to keep Ekogaru out of your head…with some rather unorthodox methods. And to tell you how to let us know if he shows up again. We have to find where he is so we can kill his host dead, dead, DEAD."

"Amen to that," said Sasha as she smiled at Aliscea. "You don't take any crap from anyone, do you?"

"Hell no," said the Pellian.

"Good, I like that," said Sasha. "Teach me."

Aliscea nodded. "It goes like this, Sasha…shut your eyes…"

And, at that, Aliscea began to teach Sasha the rudiments of mental disciplines she had never even dreamed of. Disciplines that were definitely _not_ the current pacifistic disciplines of the Iscandarians…

* * *

**III. DIFFICULTIES FOR WAKEFIELD…**

**The Vicinity of Tethys**

**The Moons of Saturn**

**Friday: May 1, 2207**

**1615 Hours: Local Time**

"People, that last run wasn't anywhere _near_ good enough!" yelled Deke Wakefield irritably into his lip mike as the Trojans flew manuevers off the _Wasp _over the frozen surface of Tethys near Saturn. "We're doing it again! NOW!"

"Gotcha," said Brew irritably. "Second squadron, let's do that again."

"Is he getting better or worse?" asked "Bangs" Capistrano.

"Worse," said Brew.

"He needs something," said Capistrano.

"I'm tracking the radio traffic!" snapped Deke. "Cut the chatter, squadron! We're flying that again until we get that right! _Got it_?"

"Roger," said Brew, all procedure now.

"Roger that, _sir_," said Capistrano.

At that, they flew their manuevers again.

* * *

An hour later, the exhausted Trojans landed on the aft deck of the spacecraft carrier _Wasp_ (SCV-4) as she took on the Trojans and one of her other Flight Groups, a Group called the Blue Devils. A few minutes later, Deke came out of his plane and went to his office to begin furiously writing up a report while someone banged at the hatch.

Finally, Deke thumbed the control and let the hatch slide open and snapped, "YES?"

A large, tall, hefty man in a Space Marine uniform was looking at him. "Mister Wakefield, I'm Master Sergeant Bianca, Chief Master of Arms on this vessel. I see you have an unauthorized weapon on this command?"

"Oh, this," said Wakefield as he picked up DJ and began to fish for his letter of dispensation. "I can explain this…."

"I haven't been able to find you for the past two damn days and had to report it to the Skipper," snapped Bianca. "And now you owe him one hell of an explanation. Take that thing and get your ass out of this office NOW, _Mister_. You're coming with me to see the Captain."

"I'm busy, Sergeant, and I need a damn cup of coffee," snapped Deke. "MAKE me…"

Bianca grabbed up DJ with one hand and gave Wakefield a good shove with the other. Wakefield glared at Bianca, but Bianca said, "Are you gonna come along willingly, or do I have to put you under formal arrest, Mister Navy Cross Star Force _hero_?"

Deke snarled at Bianca, but he thought, _I have Sasha to think about. I can't screw my career up now, as much as I want to have this jackass run his face into my fist_. Deke sighed and said, "Let's go up to Officers' Country and work this out with the Skipper, _Sergeant._ I have a damn good explanation for carrying that weapon."

Bianca nodded. "I _thought_ you'd see reason sooner or later, sir. I know this cruise began to suck from Day One. Follow me…"

* * *

A while later, Wakefield was standing at attention before the XO of the _Wasp_, the Mechanical Group Leader, a nasty-looking man with a sharp nose named Commander Max Dettweiler, and the ship's skipper, a shorter African-American man with dark hair in a short natural cut named Captain Jacob Jackson.

Bianca finished reporting to the XO, stating, "And, to sum it up, I've seen this new officer carrying that old Shetland relic everywhere. It looks like he has ammo for it, and he never checked it into the armory or filled out a 6-295 Form for it as we require in the few cases when we have officers bringing non-standard personal sidearms with them aboard a command, like, as the scuttlebutt says, Commodore Wildstar does with his brother's old Astro-Automatic. His only explanation is this letter, which he neglected to show us when he piped on…"

"Let me look at zat," said Dettweiler, who grabbed the letter from Deke's hand. "He forged this, sir," said the nasty Mechanical Group Leader a moment later. "My recommendation is; let's dismiss him and leave him at the brig at Saturn-Titan for a special court-martial…there is no excuse for this sort of flagrant breach of…"

"Wait, Commander," snapped Captain Jackson in a deep, but almost good-natured voice. "Wakefield has a damn good record. I was one of those who asked for the man. Let me at least see that letter."

"But…?" said Dettweiler.

"Let me _at least see the letter_," said Jackson as he grabbed it from Dettweiler. He scanned it and said. "Hmmm…this is unusual, but it _is_ authentic. That is, indeed, the signature of Hiram Charles Singleton. We're taking no further action, but I want to speak to the Lieutenant here before he is released. He is giving me a full statement of explanation as to why we should disregard the fact that he didn't show us this when he piped on board."

"Shall I record it?" said Dettweiler as Deke gave him a black look.

"You will do no such thing, Mister," snapped Jackson. "Dettweiler, you and Master Sergeant Bianca are dismissed. This will be between Mister Wakefield and myself."

Both men saluted and left Deke alone with the Captain.

A moment later, Jackson took off his naval cap, and then looked over the letter and said, "At ease, Wakefield. Sit down over there in that chair. I know why you need confidentiality and why your head isn't quite screwed on straight, young man. I would advise you to try to fly right before anyone notices it again on this ship."

"Sir?" said Deke.

Jackson laughed and opened a small fridge. He got out a bottle of club soda, followed by a bottle of cola, rum, and a bottle of vodka. "Name your poison, Wakefield. Captains have certain privileges on board ship, and I keep a little bit of private stock on board that the doctor gave me. Comes in nicely for talks like these."

Wakefield then said, "Rum and Cola, sir. Not too much rum. I may have to fly again later."

"You _are_ dedicated, son," said Jackson as he poured Deke his drink. "Now, I know something about you. The Commander briefed me on you, Wakefield."

"And?"

"I know that you are a newlywed, I know who the girl is, and I know the circumstances. I know you cannot discuss them, and that those circumstanves will never leave this office. Given what has happened, and given how you were torn away from her, I can understand how you may have forgotten to check in your weapon. Is that the reason?"

"Yessir," said Deke as he morosely sipped at his drink. "Sasha…I wish I could have smuggled her aboard this ship in a seabag, sir. Or something. I finally get married to her, and they rip me away from her the next morning after we consumate our marriage, and…"

"Say no more," said Jackson. "I have a wife and kids, too, Wakefield. I miss the hell out of them, too."

Deke nodded.

Jackson reached over and patted Wakefield's hands. "Son. Just try to keep your mind in your work and not forget details like this. The laws of physics are not as forgiving as men are, Wakefield. Drink up. You're dismissed and this matter is dropped. Won't even go in your record."

"Yessir," said Wakefield as he finished his rum and cola.

"Good luck to you," said Jackson as they exchanged salutes and left.

"Thanks, sir," said Deke. "I'll need it…"

Jackson nodded.

* * *

**IV. LYNN, DAWN, AND JEFF…**

**San Diego: The Rio Amarillo Apartments**

**Lynn Westland's Apartment**

**Saturday: May 2, 2207**

**1416 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

To say that Lynn Westland was shocked when Dawn brought Jefferson Hardy into their apartment and introduced him to her mother as her "husband" was a major understatement.

"What?" said Lynn.

"Mom, I said, this is Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Hardy, my new husband…"

Hardy said, "Pleased to make your acquaintaince, Mrs. Westland…"

"_I'm_ not!" snapped Lynn as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" said Hardy.

"It's not _you_, Jefferson," said Lynn as she turned her eyes upon Dawn. Dawn had on a halter, shorts, thongs, and her star pendant. Hardy had on a shirt, tie, and chino pants with boots. Lynn glared at her daughter as tears began to form in the older woman's eyes. "What in Heaven's name have I done to you that you neglected to invite me to your own wedding? Me, your own _mother_?"

"I had a good reason, Mom," said Dawn as tears formed in her eyes. "We came home together from a long mission, and you know the way this war has been going…I had no idea when we'd be together again, so I thought we'd elope…"

"And hide it from the whole world? That was a class act, Dawn! Okay. How did you meet this young man? How and where?"

"Ma'am, I've known yoah daughter for quite a while. I met her at a World Services Organization canteen some years back before she graduated from college. We started talking there, and swore to keep in touch. We wrote, and then we met up again on the _Argo_ last year…"

"The _Argo_?" cried Lynn. "What were you two doing on _that_ ship?"

"Special mission we couldn't and still can't discuss," interjected Dawn. "We met again on that mission and gradually decided we had to get married…we just had to…"

Dawn and Lynn looked at each other for a long while. Finally, Lynn said, "Okay, Dawn…Jeff…if I may call you that…we'll go out to eat later on tonight…after you put on a longer skirt, that is, Dawn…"

"Why?" said Dawn.

"We're going to Campobello's, that's why. My treat," said Lynn.

Jeff smiled at Dawn, and she smiled at her mother. "Sounds like a plan…"

* * *

That afternoon, the three of them took a nice walk on the nearby beach, watching the surf, the gulls, a few surfers, kids flying kites, and smiling at a few sunbathers in passing, some of whom were topless or in nothing at all (the beach was clothes-optional starting around the apartment complex).

Later, at dinner, (during which Dawn had changed into a long skirt she had in her bags along with a pair of open springtime heels), Lynn was quite impressed at Jeff's gallantry as he pulled out chairs for both Lynn and Dawn and made sure they were both comfortable.

At dinner, Lynn was very impressed by Hardy's southern charm and gentlemanly demeanor, and started to understand how he managed to steal away her daughter's heart.

After dinner, they returned to Lynn's apartment, where they were invited to spend the night. Hardy and Dawn were a bit unsure about this, but at Lynn's insistence they finally agreed to stay over in Dawn's old bedroom.

Before they turned in, Lynn noticed that Dawn was still wearing Deke's pendant, on her bare shoulders over her halter, and she asked to speak to her alone for a few minutes. Hardy thus retired to Dawn's old bedroom, while Lynn and Dawn sat on the balcony alone with drinks in their hands.

Lynn looked at her daughter and said, "Dawn, I have no problem with Jeff. He's charming, he's kind, he's wonderful…"

"Thanks, Mother," said Dawn.

"But, I wonder," said Lynn as she tapped her sandal against the cement surface of the balcony. "_Why_ are you still wearing Deke's star pendant? You know, the one he gave you?"

Dawn fiddled with the small star, but remained silent.

Lynn cleared her throat and asked, "Dawn, does Jeff know about Deke?"

Dawn shook her head no.

"You never told him?"

"Mom, Jeff has been through some painful times, and so have I…" Dawn then traced a crack in the cement nervously with the open toe of her pump, with the bit of light visible that night glinting off her mother-of-pearl polished toenails as she did so. "We..Jeff and I….agreed it was best to leave the past _in_ the past…"

Lynn crossed and uncrossed her legs, her skirt rustling as she did so. She sucked in a deep breath as she adjusted her vest and then exhaled it.

"I'm not happy, Dawn," said Lynn as she stirred her drink before setting it back down on a small table.

"I'm confused, Mother…"

"So am I," said Lynn. "I'm **very** confused. Who do you love? Jeff? Or Deke?"

"It's not quite that…it's…Well, Mother….every time that we…Jeff and I…started to discuss our past relationships, we realized they were just too painful to recall…."

"I can't understand that…"

"It's us…you don't have to understand, Mom…"

"Okay…I won't," sighed Lynn Westland. "However, I do not think it's right for you, Dawn to continue wearing Deke's pendant now you are married to Jeff. That star belonged to Jess, Deke's mother, and Deke gave it to you as a symbol of his love for you. To continue wearing it now that you are married to another man is a slap in Deke's face."

"No it's not!"

Lynn grimaced. "Yes, it is….and you know it. Besides, you know Deke has never stopped loving you. So far as I know, he hasn't been truly serious with anyone since you broke up with him out of the hope that you two would get back together…it's like…"

Dawn banged down her drink angrily. "Mom….Well…that's obviously not going to happen now, is it? I can't help what Deke's been hoping for. He blew it when he left for the space school. It is his own damned fault!"

Lynn snapped, "Okay, Dawn! So why are you still wearing Deke's star? This makes no sense to me!"

Dawn kicked a small pebble off the balcony as she said "Mom, it is because a little part of me still loves Deke, okay, and that part of me still needs and wants to remember him, _okay?_ Jeff knows it was given to me by an ex, and he's accepted my need to continue wearing it in spite of the fact we're now married. Maybe you don't approve, but please, don't ask me to give this up, _okay_?"

Lynn glared at her daughter, but stopped when their reverie was broken by the sudden ringing of the visiphone.

"I'll get that," said Lynn as she kicked off her thongs and ran off. "It's nearly eleven at night…who could be calling now?"

"I'd better go see if it woke up Jeff…"

"Good idea," said Lynn tartly as she ran into the kitchen of her apartment.

* * *

At his end, from the Saturn-Titan space station (where he had liberty) Deke Wakefield was about to give up in his attempt to call Lynn to apologize for not being able to stop by earlier that week when she picked up. To his shock, she looked a bit put out.

"Lynn?" said Deke. In the meantime, in the apartment, Dawn stepped out of her slingbacks and tiptoed into the bedroom to see if the noise had awakened Hardy. On the phone, Deke said, "You look mad. Is this a bad time?"

"No, not at all," said Lynn softly. In her bedroom, in the meantime, Dawn bent over Hardy in their wide bed and smiled as she watched Jeff sleeping in peace. _He's sleeping like a baby_, thought Dawn. _Better than I'll probably sleep tonight thanks to Mother. I wonder who Mom is talking to out there…?_

"That's good," said Deke. "I owe you an apology, Lynn…I knew I said I'd be by San Diego for a visit? I can't come now…"

"Why not?" said Lynn.

Deke sighed, "Lynn, I'm sorry, I was reassigned. I was given the chance to command a Flight Group, so I was on Earth for maybe a day. I'm now the commanding officer of a Group called the Trojans. I'm on Saturn-Titan now on a carrier, outbound…"

"That sounds great? Where are you going?"

"I can't say; except that it's somewhere outside of the solar system…"

Dawn tiptoed out of the bedroom on bare feet after kissing Jeff softly. She shut the bedroom door and tiptoed down the hall, with her heart nearly kicking its way out of her chest when she recognized the voice at the other end of the visiphone. _Deke?_ Dawn thought. _Why the hell are you calling up?_

Dawn came into the kitchen and spotted her mother on the visiphone. Lynn turned around and shushed her with a finger to her lips before she could say anything. However, as Lynn turned, it exposed the screen to Dawn, and it also exposed Dawn to Deke.

Dawn gasped, and had just enough presence of mind to get her hands behind her back (explaining her new wedding band now might be awkward), but she could not hide the incriminating star pendant, nice and exposed above her bare collarbone.

"Dawn?" said Deke.

"Yes," she said uncomfortably with a dry throat. "It's me."

"Funny, there's someone in our squadron who looks just like you…she's named Capistrano…she has hair like yours…we call her "Bangs" but her first name is Gabrielle. She made me think it was you when I piped aboard…my new command."

"Were you disappointed that it wasn't?"

"No," said Deke after a long moment. "I wasn't."

"Why not?" challenged Dawn with a flutter of her eyelids that almost made her mother want to slap her across the face.

"You were haunting my dreams, Dawn."

"Really?"

"No more," said Deke in a dry voice. "Dawn, Lynn…the best way I can say this…" he said slowly as he realized he could not spill the beans about Sasha and his recent secret marriage. "Is…that I am _involved_ with someone. This girl…"

"I _hope_ it's a girl, Deke," snapped Dawn as Lynn glared at her.

"Lynn…Dawn…I'll write both of you a letter. To explain. I've changed a lot…in the past few years. You know that, Lynn. Dawn, you probably don't…"

"Yeah…I…"

"Dawn, I'm sorry…but life goes on," sighed Deke. "Why are you still wearing my star pendant?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"I…I can't explain it…but, Deke," said Dawn. "You are not the only one that life has 'gone on' for. It's 'gone on' for me, _too_. Good night, Deke."

Before Wakefield could say anything else, Dawn turned her back on Deke and the conversation while Lynn said good night to Deke. Lynn noticed that she had left the room as she turned the visiphone off.

Lynn made herself another drink and waited angrily for her daughter as Dawn tiptoed back in. Dawn said, "Jeff is still asleep, thank Heavens."

"Good," said Lynn. "It's a good thing he didn't hear this farce of a conversation. You could have at least have been _civil_ to your former fiancee', Mrs. Dawn Hardy."

"You don't approve of me? Good. I've grown up, Mother. And I won't stop wearing this pendant. It reminds me of good times…good memories. Okay?"

Lynn said, "Dawn, you're right, I don't approve, but you're an adult, and I can't make you do anything you don't want to anymore. But, if you and Deke should ever cross paths again, you'd better be ready and willing to explain to him why you're still wearing that pendant…and give the man a _full_ explanation, and be civil to him. Got it?"

"Okay," said Dawn as she looked at her feet. "I'm going to bed, Mother. Good night."

"Good night, Dawn," said Lynn as she stirred her drink. "Oh?"

"Yes?"

"I think it'd be better if you and Jeff left in the morning. You can come by another time."

Dawn nodded.

Lynn then said, "I'm making some more phone calls. I'll try not to disturb you and Jeff."

Dawn nodded, tiptoeing back to the bedroom.

* * *

Dawn changed into her nightclothes (she was not going to sleep in her skin with Jeff tonight in her own old house) but found she couldn't sleep.

She threw on a robe and tiptoed out into the hall, peeking around the corner as her mother sat talking to some unaccountably young woman on the visiphone.

Dawn couldn't hear that well, but a sight of the girl's face made her blood run cold for some reason.

The young woman had long blond hair, an innocent face, beautiful burgundy-brown eyes, and she wore a set of striped pajamas that somehow looked strangely familiar to Dawn. It looked as if she was sitting inside a very elegant, expensive-looking house with simulated walnut-panelled walls.

Something about her face made Dawn almost instinctively jump up to try to scratch _the girl's_ eyes out.

"It's a little surprising that I got you, Miss," said Lynn. "Who are you, and what are you doing in that house?"

"My name…is Miss Petrovsky," said the young woman. "I'm on leave from the Academy this weekend. I'm sorry, ma'am. Mrs. Wildstar isn't home right now. I'm house-sitting for her and Commodore Wildstar. I'm a student they taught at the Space Fighters' Training School. We have one other house guest, but he's not home right now."

"If I may ask, where is Nova staying?"

"In the Denver Megalopolis at her parents' house with the Commodore, Ma'am," said Sasha in a perfectly charming voice that somehow made Dawn look as if she wanted to climb the walls. Dawn kept her face hidden in her hands, somehow dreading the sight of _the girl_ catcing a glimpse of her face.

Somehow…Dawn both feared and hated _the girl_ on sight, and she barely knew who she was! She couldn't figure out what was going on.

Nor did she want to.

Dawn was relieved when her mother terminated the call and called Nova at the Forresters' house. She went back to bed while Lynn and Nova spoke.

* * *

In Boulder, before going to church the next morning, indeed, before breakfast, a happier scene was taking place while Derek stood holding Nova, who wore pajamas in the spare bedroom as her mother Teri took some tender pictures of her young pregnant daughter and her stomach as Derek protectively stood with his hands around his wife's bared stomach as she stood in her shorty pajamas with her top half-open.

Then, as Derek kissed the back of her head, Nova asked, "Mother, are we _done_ yet?"

"Almost, dear," said Teri. "I'd like to photograph you in a little surprise outfit I prepared," said Teri as she opened a box.

Nova blushed. "Isn't that what you wore after you had David and Aurora and Dad took those pictures of you feeding them? There's hardly anything there _to_ wear!"

"Yes, dear, I was hoping you'd wear this in the delivery room in the hospital…"

Nova smiled and blushed as she slipped out of her pajamas and slipped into what was basicially a filmy, very short blouse-like nightie in translucent white that left her bottomless. As her mother began to photograph her again in Derek's arms, she put a leg out and stood on tiptoe so not too much of her lower form would be showing. Then, at Teri's direction, Derek gradually untied the gown, exposing a little more of Nova's stomach and then breasts with each shot until she stood almost naked in her open nightie. Then, as he held her close, Derek tenderly stripped her of the nightie, where the last few shots of her now healthy pregnant form were taken of her in the nude in shots that made her look almost angelic. Teri almost cried when she took the last picture, which was a spontaneous shot of Derek gently kissing Nova's naked tummy.

Then, a blushing Nova threw on a robe and said, "Okay if I take a shower now, Mom?"

Teri nodded as Derek and Nova left the room.

Then, Teri sat down on the bed and began to cry. "Oh, God, my baby's grown up! Please, Heavens, let her have a safe delivery and give me grandchildren!"

In the shower, as she showered, Nova herself wept as she washed her stomach and felt her children waking up and kicking playfully within her. Her emotions were like a rollercoaster as Derek came in afterwards with a towel to dry her.

"Look at me," said Nova. "One minute, I think I'm gorgeous, next minute, I realize how damn fat I am. This is driving me crazy. My back hurts, my feet are swelling up so much today I can barely even get my shoes on, and I don't know how I'm going to feel on that plane flight back home…"

Derek knew better than to say she soon wouldn't be able to fly on a commercial aircraft once she reached her third trimester after their trip to Europe soon (although she could, of course, travel on a large spacecraft). Instead, he just held Nova and said, "I don't find you ugly. Your parents don't. No one does. You're worth protecting right now…"

"I must sound really stupid," sniffed Nova as she wiped her nose on her forearm. Then, she got some bath tissue and blew her nose. Derek smiled at her and continued holding her.

* * *

At roughly the same time elsewhere in Boulder, two men who appeared to be bums were sitting on a park bench in the sun.

One of them was an old man with dirty, matted greyish-white long hair and a matted beard in a battered, torn, and dirty ancient Naval enlisted men's peacoat in dark blue. The old man also wore fingerless gloves, filthy sneakers, a torn scarf, and a black derby. He was snarling and humming to himself as he sat drinking some booze from a dirty, chipped bottle.

The other man looked even more eccentric. He was clothed in what looked like a very dirty monk's cowl in brown, and sat leaning on a rough staff. Dusty, sandalled feet showed beneath the hem of his cowl, and a little of his sharp, pointed nose and a forked beard showed from beneath his hood; which hid the rest of his face. Police looked at him suspiciously because he looked a little like some mad Josiahite, but he had none of the aggressiveness of one. In fact, in his quiet, unostentatious way, he was known for doing kindnesses here and there for people, and inexplicable things seemed to happen in his wake. Yet, he gave off a definite, strange aura as someone who had a background deeper than that of a mere wandering monk. He seemed to have an aura of being without father or mother, and of being very mysterious. No one knew who he was, or where he came from or dwelt.

"You know, Boss," said the old man in his weird, growling voice. "We're gonna get rousted from this spot sooner or later by the cops. Why are we hangin' out here, anyway?"

"Relax, Seadragon," said the younger man. "We have our purposes. You get around. So do I."

"Sayin' you've been around the block, Buddy, is a major friggin' understatement."

The man in the monk's cowl nodded and he said, "You need to keep watch. There is more going on here than even you are aware of."

"Like what?"

"Threads upon threads are tying together, even now. Earth is going to be going through a tough time soon, so do what you can, Melvin, to be able to help if you have to. Of course, I have my own business. You know what it is and where it is."

At that, the two wanderers left.

* * *

The next day, on Monday, May 3rd, back at the Space Fighters' Training School, Sasha prepared for the approximately two-week period of Exam Break, where her class and the graduating Class of 2207 had two weeks' worth of leave, during which they would study for their exams at the end of the month.

Sasha looked over her course schedule, making sure she had her books and notes ready since she would soon be heading back to the Wildstar residence the next day to begin a vacation with the family in Europe.

Sasha looked at her Academy schedule again, which read as follows:

Recent Military History 355 (3 credits)

Advanced Wave Motion Physics 360 (4 credits)

Intermediate Vector Analysis 375 (3 credits)

Intermediate Survey Methods and Pattern Analysis 380 (3 credits)

Advanced Military Leadership 342 (2 credits)

Total Course Load: 15 Credits

_I have a lot of books to take,_ thought Sasha. _Well, at least many of these courses will have practical exams on the simulators here at the Academy. I wonder what ship I'm going to take my summer cruise on?_

Sasha was also reading over her latest letter from Deke, which had just arrived. Part of it read as follows:

_Well, Sasha, we've just arrived at Alpha Centauri today. Tomorrow, we'll be warping on to the area around the Voton Stars. You know, the places where the Argo made history eight years ago now? It's hard to beleve that those events are so far in the past now._

_I've also been having bad dreams again. Horrible nightmares, really…I don't know if I can talk about them. Part of them are about Sasha Morningstar, that innocent woman I told you about…the one I killed by mistake years ago in a food riot in the underground city near San Diego? These dreams are horrible. They include Nova and they include you, too. Just..awful…_

Sasha's eyes begaqn to mist over as she skipped on and read; _I_ _miss you worse than ever. One night was't enough for us. Damnit, we should have had an entire month together, or two months…or more. _

_I also want to confess to you that when I called up my old "foster mother" Lynn Westland the other day, I got to talk to my old fiancee' for a moment. Dawn. I told you about her earlier in the letter and told you how we were friends in school and how we split up. I was hoping maybe Dawn and I could at least be friends. Just friends. Not bloody likely now. We had words on the visiphone, and not nice ones. I would rather have been talking to you…_

Sasha smiled a little through her tears as she scribbled a note on the letter that would go into her reply. _Okay, funny, Deke_. _Lynn called me the other night, wanting to talk with Nova. She got me instead because Derek and Nova, are, as we speak, on their fight back from Boulder. I referred her to Nova's parents in Boulder, but before I hung up, I noticed this girl in the background that looked like your picture of Dawn…she had this funny-looking Star Pendant on. Was that Dawn? I didn't talk to her or tell her who I was, but she didn't look like as she liked me much. Looking daggers at me through the screen, she was….what did you do with her picture, Deke?_

Sasha smiled again as she read Deke's unwitting reply a few lines down. It read: _Sasha, I didn't destroy Dawn's picture, but after that, I shoved it way down in my seabag. I don't want to destroy it, but I want her out of sight and out of mind…._

_Good Deekee_, thought Sasha with a smile.

_I've got a lot to do now, Sasha,_ said Deke in conclusion. _So much with this squadron, so many flights and patrols._ _I'm almost beginning to f'ing hate the cockpit of my plane now. Take care, and I love you and miss you, and…_

_Deeekkeee_, thought Sasha as she hugged the letter and began to cry. _Damn, I have to attend this live-fire demonstration later on near the firing range. We're supposed to be seeing this bunch of Marines that just came back from China fighting the Josiahites blowing things up. What fun, huh?_

* * *

**V. OUT OF CHINA…**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Yokosuka** **Space Marine Base**

**Monday: May 4, 2207**

**1126 Hours: Local Time**

* * *

Just off the plane from China and a bloody but sucessful battle with the Josiahite separatists that had destroyed a major base in Southern China, the remnants of the 255th Space Marine Platoon had just gotten back from Yunnan Province. There, along with four or five other platoons, they had done heavy battle with and had surrounded and destroyed a major Josiahite base there and a nearby village. Thanks to their efforts, a major Josiahite base that was being set up for missile launches was no more, and the few survivors had been driven off over the border into the jungles of nearby Vietnam.

The base and villages no longer existed. The 255th, in particular, had done a very effective job of decimating the village (after losing more than half of its men) under the twisted leadership of Lieutenant Gary Maples and Sergeant Mick Stovall (Stovall had become the XO of what remained of the bitter platoon). They claimed the village was a nest of Josiahites and that even the sackcloth-clad dead women and the raggedly clad or naked children found dead in the village were all Josiahites. Maples and Stovall had done a great job covering up the fact that they had attacked first after a few women and children had thrown grenades at them while they were pillaging the village and the hooches for evidence and weapons after the battle.

"Good job, guys," said Maples as he addressed the eleven remaining survivors of the 255th as they stood at attention in their dirty uniforms before the Company Area in front of their barracks. "We all got friggin' decorated, and we all got friggin' leave…"

"We're gonna be back together again at the end of the month," said Stovall as he strutted around with a heavy Laser AK-160 Automatic Gun on his shoulders. "We have this bullshit duty later today, assholes, before we get leave, though! We have to go to the firing range at the Space Fighters' Training School and do a fuckin' live fire demonstration so we can make the midshipmen in their pretty colorful little Goddamn uniforms piss their pants! You guys salty enough to make the cadets afraid of us?"

"YESSIR!" yelled the 255th.

"I can't hear YOU!" yelled Stovall.

The platoon again screamed, "YESSIR!" as some anonymous Marine from Headquarters Company ran by in a clean uniform. He stopped and stared at the dirty combat veterans as if he was looking at some new kind of bacteria.

"What the Christ on a Crutch are you _lookin_' at?" sneered Maples as Stovall grinned and fingered the Sphere in his pocket. Stovall felt the familiar presence of his Dark Lord as he whispered in his mind, "_Feel no guilt, Stovall. Those were unworthy and usless servants of Mine you greased in China. Useless assholes. Universe is better off without those losers. Thank you for purging my ranks, friend…_"

"Uh…nothing, sir," said the HQ kid.

"You queer for us?" said Stovall as he undid his heavy weapon. "We killed three hundred Josiahites in China, jackoff. Does blood and guts give ya a hard-on?"

"No…Sarge..it…"

"THEM GET THE HELL OUTTA MY SIGHT!" roared Stovall as the others clapped and jeered. The HQ kid saluted and ran off.

"Scared of us," said one Private.

"He thinks we be fucked up," said another one.

"He right, bro," said a third one as they laughed and clapped.

"Guys, there's only one thing sweeter than the smell of bodies burning at night," sneered Stovall.

"What, Sarge?" said another Marine.

"The smell of pussy, Masterson. Let's see if we can get some pussy at the Academy today!"

The platoon then began to whoop and chant, "KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL!"

And, not far away, Ekogaru was pleased. _Nice job, Stovall,_ he thought. _Lurking in the shadows was great for a time. Now, we will start forming our "new breed"—in the ranks of the Earth Defense Forces ourselves! Give us time, and we can make a fit new seat of my Empire out of this stinking little planet. The Cometines are failing me. Invidia is losing. We need new blood. Yes, new…blood…._

* * *

**VI. A BATTLE RAGES…**

**A Far Edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud**

**The Geratz System**

**The Vicinity of Planet Geratz VIII**

**Monday: May 4, 2207**

**1300 Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time**

* * *

Garuman-Gamilon General Dagon's forces were in heavy battle with a large Cometine fleet that was trying to penetrate through to a Gamilon base world called Geratz VII that guarded the approaches to the Gamilon factory planet and commercial center of Peralta, a major planet in this part of the Great Magellenic Cloud. Dagon had drawn up his lines near Geratz VIII, a world that Desslok and Talan had told him was expendable, so far as they were now concerned. The eighth planet was worthless. They wanted to keep the seventh.

On the bridge of his new flagship, the Garuman-designed space battleship _Vatranka_, Dagon was in a good mood.

_We are not doing too badly, so far,_ thought Dagon. _We have defeated them at Pogi. Of course, they regrouped and came here. Today, they shall truly feel Gamilon's wrath yet again as we prepare a second test of Desslok's great new weapons…a test that Desslok says must not fail, this time…_

"Sir!" said an officer on Dagon's flagship as he stood near the General's command seat. "Enemy Fleet approaching at full battle speed! Twenty space destroyers, ten space battleships, ten missile ships, and five spacecraft carriers. Fleet identified as Cometine, sir."

"Course of action, General?" said a staff officer in grey who snapped a salute.

"Order the cruisers and destroyers to throw up a screen; prepare carriers to launch fighters to intercept any planes from the enemy fleet. Lure them into orbit of Geratz VIII. Keep back our second element until we are sure they have taken our bait," said Dagon with a smile.

"Yessir!" snapped the Gamilon staff officer with a hearty salute.

"General, enemy fleet commander is calling us," said Dagon's comm officer.

"Put the idiot on the screen and let's see what he wants," yawned Dagon.

The comm officer nodded.

* * *

Five of the space battleships with the Cometine fleet were black, shiny, and nasty-looking. The fleet commander was a Black Nebulan commander named Admiral Vilzer, a bald, scornful sort whom Invidia had talked into service as Gernitz's right-hand man and hatchet man. His flagship, the Black Nebulan space battleship _Helandes_, was the largest ship in the squadron. It was from his bridge that he sent a scornful message to Dagon's flagship.

"So, _you _are the great General Dagon?" hissed Vilzer in a venomous voice.

"I am," said Dagon. "And what is it to you?"

"Long have I been waiting to speak to you," said Vilzer. "The Princess calls on my people in her hour of need and we gladly answer the call, having signed a treaty of friendship with her race some time ago. I am Admiral Vilzer, late of the Black Nebula. Many of my people suffered genocide in a great accident right before we were able to carry out our long-range plans for Gamilon, Iscandar, and Earth, plans that Zordar and Invidia had approved in conference with our Great Leader; with the plans for Earth to go on only if Zordar's efforts failed. Gamilon was to have been mined. Iscandar was to have been captured and pillaged. And the Terran Race on Earth was to have their brain matter destroyed by a Hyperon Bomb so that we could take over their growing, fecund little bodies. We never got to carry out the Master Plan, sadly. It would have been great. But your death shall serve as a nice consolation prize for the honor of the Black Nebulan People and the Greater Cometine Empire House of Gatlantis and the Greater Empire. How do you want to die, Dagon?"

"I don't intend to die at all," replied Dagon.

"I thought not," sniffed Vilzer. "You look like a very obstinate sort. Well, makes things better when we go to battle, hm? Like right now?"

Dagon's screen went black as the heavy battleship _Helandes_ immediately opened up with all of her turrets.

The fire was heavy and devastating, and it roared into the Gamilon ranks without mercy.

Destroyers and cruisers were hit and blown to bits as the energy ripped through them.

"Fleet hard about!" yelled Dagon. "Return fire in Formation Vaga! Get those heavy enemy units!"

At the same time, the pure Cometine ships opened up with their heavy shock cannons, with their beams surrounding several Gamilon battleships in deadly cyclones, crushing them before they could bring their weapons to bear.

"Launch attack boats from the carriers!" snapped Vilzer. "I want their carriers turned into space trash! And assume orbit about the planet!"

"Yessir," said Vilzer's exec with a snappy salute. "Launching fighter craft! Preparing second salvo at enemy battleships!"

Vilzer nodded as the _Helandes_ fired again.

More Gamilons died.

It did not look good for Dagon.

* * *

"The battle is not going well, General!" said one of Dagon's staff officers as his flagship was battered about by near-misses.

Still, the mighty Gamilon space battleship _Vetranka_ cruised on, the ship and crew confident in their ability to take damage and keep on fighting.

"How bad is it?" said Dagon as he finished a drink.

"We have lost about fifty percent of the fleet, sir. It will be hard to take them ship by ship. Hard but not impossible."

"Only if we have to," said Dagon as he lowered his glass.

"So what do we do?" said the XO.

"Well, then," said Dagon. "Strategic retreat, evacuate the area! Order second element to take position and to prepare to fire spread of three proton missiles at my mark in eighty seconds. Have them hold our fourth one in reserve in case we need it."

"Yessir," said Dagon's XO. He stepped away from his command seat, picked up a mike, and said, "All Gamilon-Garuman units, first element, strategic retreat seven hundred _gerad_ distance, ready warp! Second element, bring first three proton missiles to bear, hold fourth for other use. Targets, equator and northern hemisphere of planet. Backlash of planetary destruction should eliminate enemy fleet!"

"Helm, adjusting fifty degrees port!" snapped one officer.

"Locking down main guns and closing offensive systems," said another officer in his helmet.

"Changing energy pathways," said the engineer.

"Send final codes to fleet, intership," snapped Dagon.

"Yessir," said the XO. "Communications, relay orders to the fleet! Send them under ciphers!"

"Orders acknowledged," said the helmeted Garuman officer. "Transmitting codes to all elements of fleet under Cipher V-625!"

"Very well," said another officer.

A moment later, as it was preparing to warp, Dagon's flagship took a direct hit.

"_Damnit_!" yelled Dagon as fire and arcs blew about his bridge.

"Still able to warp but we took damage, sir!" said his XO.

"Warp us out of here then! NOW!" yelled Dagon.

"It'll look like we're fleeing," said the XO.

"I'm not worried about that now!" snapped Dagon. "I want to be there at the end when we get them! That is the whole damned point of this battle, rubbing my boot in their faces as those inferior green goblins and plastic machine people all die before the might of our Empire!"

"Yessir," said Dagon's XO.

* * *

"Admiral! They're warping!" said a staff officer of Vilzer's.

"They're up to some sort of game! Warp us out on the same course, leave the battle to General Haga on the Cometine flagship in second squadron. I want the Gamilon snake to die under my own guns so I can bear the tale to Invidia," said Vilzer. "The reat of them….oh…Gernitz will soon be here with a surprise for _them_, yes. Ready warp, ten seconds…"

The orders went out to the Cometines, who responded as Vilzer and his staff began to ready their space warps…

A moment later, Vilzer and his group went into warp…

* * *

"All surving ships of first element now clear of battle area!" snapped Dagon's XO as his flagship came out of warp behind his proton missile ships.

Dagon nodded. "Proton missiles, _fire_!"

Soon, the ships of Dagon's fleet fired with a deadly efficiency as three of the massive projectiles roared towards Geratz VIII while Vilzer's group had just gone into hyperspace nearby. The fourth Garuman ship holding a proton missile slowed down and held back, holding its missile for any backup actions that would be needed.

The Cometines looked shocked as their deaths approached in big, black, and deadly fashiom, the missiles squashing some of their ships as they roared relentlessly into the rocky, abandoned planet and impacted into it.

A moment later, space nearby went very bright as the planet blew apart in a wonderfully deadly fashion.

The whole Cometine fleet went with it…except for Vilzer's battleship squadron.

* * *

Vilzer and his men gasped as hyperspace, distorted by the sudden loss of the nearby gravity well of Geratz VIII, turned mad and almost sucked his fleet into nothingness before some other force spat his ships out somewhere in some unknown location they couldn't map, with many of the Black Nebulans' computer systems on fire.

One way or another, Vilzer was out of the battle and the war…at least for the time being.

And he was not happy about it.

* * *

Gernitz and the _Devastation _and her fifty escorts warped in to the vicinity of Geratz VII to discover the fading explosion of what had been Geratz VIII.

A moment later, his fleet was surrounded by a bunch of very angry Gamilons over the Garuman-Gamilon base world of Geratz VII as Dagon and the surviving elements of his fleet warped in quite suddenly.

Gernitz laughed. "This is amusing! Comm officer, connect me to their commander!"

"Yessir," said the comm officer.

A moment later, Dagon's XO, who was named Gelantz, said, "General Dagon…sir…they're calling from that…uh…big…black…ugly…_thing_…"

"Do not _worry, _Gelantz! I have no fear of them! We fight for Leader Desslok to the end! Open the channel!"

"Opening channel," said the comm officer in a shaking voice.

Gernitz's elegant bald, demonic-looking, bearded visage came on Dagon's main screen a moment later. He was transmitting from the smaller Battle Operations Bridge of his Dreadnought. "I am Cometine Marshal Gernitz. What is _your _name, Gamilon _scum_?"

"Dagon, Gernitz. You were at Melezart, I recall. We nearly got you then. You are very persistent. Care to try again?"

"Ahh…you puny idiots. You think you can finish _me_ off with those antiques?"

"I have something left up my sleeve you may not like," said Dagon with a confident smile. "And I am done talking with you."

Dagon made a slashing motion and said, "Gelantz?"

"Yessir."

"We need hold the fort for only a short time. Good thing I had foresight. Order our fourth proton missile to come to bear and fire at my mark…target…that _thing_."

"Yessir," said Gelantz with a salute as his arm came up…"

Then, all around them, space turned into a blasting hell as the Cometine Dreadnought _Devastation_ let loose a deranged salvo into their midst.

"First salvo completed!" barked an officer on his Ops Bridge.

"Second set of turrets on aft portion of ship ready to bear!" snapped another officer.

"Fire!" barked Gernitz.

"Firing!" said another one of his men.

"Damage from first salvo: destroyed eight Gamilon destroyers, four missile cruisers, two heavy cruisers, one battleship."

"Small ship manuvering at rear of fleet," said another officer.

"Get it," said Gernitz with a wicked smile.

"Bringing guns to bear…"

"Sir!" said another officer. "Heavy fleet appeared behind Gamilon fleet. Identification, Cometine by their IFF signals!"

Gernitz laughed. "Have them sandwich their fleet, and have them…"

"Yessir," said the comm officer. Then, he began to sweat. "Cometine fleet refusing to acknowledge our hails, sir."

"What?" said Gernitz.

"Refusing all signals, refusing all orders, but, sir, voice message coming in. In code."

"What is it?" said Gernitz in annoyance.

"Decoding now…I…"

"Sir!" said the radar officer. "Fleet identified! Forty space battleships, twenty missile ships, four carriers, one Dreadnought. Color scheme, Blue XP-25. Not vessels from House Gatlantis, sir…"

"Playing message," said the sweating comm officer.

A low, amused laugh filled the bridge. "Gernitz. I am sure you remember me. You spat on me when Zordar expelled me from his ranks?"

"Ra.._Radnar_?" said Gernitz. "You come to join me?"

"No, heretic," said Radnar as, too late, an image of the main siege cannon on _his_ Dreadnought, the _Purification_, came on the battle bridge of the _Devastation_. "I come to _bury_ you, Gernitz. The Grand Emperor has had quite enough of the Leadership of House Gatlantis. He has empowered me to make some changes. Invidia will soon follow you into perdition, Friend Gernitz. I hope you have a wonderfully _slow_ death, heretic and atheist! Good-Bye!"

On the main bridge of his Dreadnought, being careful not to hit a single Gamilon ship, Radnar nodded and whispered "FIRE!"

Flaming death roared out of _his_ siege cannon at only a few megameters' range in just one shot.

Before Gernitz could react, the energy surge blasted efficiently right into the very midsection of the _Devastation_.

A great flower of energy and fire formed, blasting out of the guts of the dying Dreadnought before a startled Dagon's eyes as the blast roared up into the ship and outwards to Gernitz's fleet.

Desytroyers, mssile ships, battleships, carriers, all of them died as Gernitz trembled as his arrogant black ship began to, at last, come apart.

At last, at long last, this vile servant of Invidia's was finally defeated.

"Hold us together!" Gernitz yelled as he struck one of his officers.

"Nothing we can do, sir, I…AAAAAAAAAAA!" roared an officer as the bridge began to explode.

Radnar's Dreadnought fired again at the dying Gatantean fleet, making sure that nothing was left of it but wreckage as the remaining magna-energy surge blasted into a cold area on Planet Geratz VII. Luckily, for the Gamilons, their base was not affected.

But, Gernitz's ship certainly was.

Gernitz went blind as magna-energy finally filled his bridge, burning him mortally through his uniform as he turned into a human torch.

Not that it mattered much.

Finally, Gernitz screamed and roared helplessly as his ship turned into a boiling hell around him.

Then, he and his ship dissloved into nothing.

Invidia's vile henchman and long-time executioner and mass murderer was finally dead.

"Not bad," said Tendor on the _Purifcation_.

"All destroyed?" asked Radnar.

"Yessir," said Tendor.

"Perfect hit. Arishna has blessed us! My Dreadnought has finally beaten that atheist's Dreadnought!" Radndar smiled. "Now, open a channel to that Gamilon fleet. I wonder if they have wet themselves in this display of the spirit of Arishna? Well, no problem, I must reassure them I mean them no harm. I want a conference with Desslok, you see."

* * *

"Sir," said Gelantz aboard Dagon's flagship. "The Proton Missile ship _Harag_ begs, for the fifth time, permission to fire at that _second_ Cometine Dreadnought!"

Dagon shook his head. "Hard to believe, they got their own ship. But why."

"Then let's finish them, sir!" said Gelantz.

"Not until I figure out what is going on," said Dagon. "Listen. A second fleet emerged from warp-space, we prepared to attack both fleets in what would have been one last glorious fight, but, instead, second fleet fires at Gernitz's fleet and ignores _us_. They also have a different paint scheme than the others. All those ships are light blue. Why? And why are the Cometines suddenly fighting each other? I'd love to…"

"General," said Dagon's comm officer. "The surviving Dreadnought is hailing _us_."

"Good. Open the channel," replied Dagon.

A moment later, an old, white-bearded green face came up on the main screen of Dagon's battleship. "Greetings, Gamilon General. Your name, please?"

"Dagon. What is your name and whom do _**you**_ serve? Explain promptly. We have little time for this. Your gun has set fire to a forest on that world below us."

"Not the atheist Invidia," replied Radnar in his deep voice. "I have been sent by the Cometine Grand Emperor as a result of Desslok's declaration at the Melezart peace conference a few weeks ago. As simply as I can put it in haste, Princess Invidia is no longer in favor in the higher ranks of our people's nation in Andromeda. Desslok unearthed news that Zordar had prounounced him Heir of House Gatlantis before he died? And not Invidia. Invidia was thus ordered to abdicate to allow your Leader Desslok to assume his new station in our ranks as the new Prince of Gatlantis and an allied leader. Invidia refused. We were ordered, this, to go to war with her. You might call it a civil war in our ranks. But we will eventually win. As I have accepted this and have sworn to the Emperor to serve whom we recognize as the new Prince Desslok in the Andromeda regions as his Regent over Gatlantis, we now, basicially, are on the same side and serve the same Leader. I propose a truce and alliance to finish off Invidia. We've a good idea of her plans, you see. I have spies in her ranks under her nose that report to me. As part of my good faith, I have technical readouts of the Eritz Gatlantis to offer to Desslok. When can he and I get together to speak, Dagon?"

"I cannot grant this myself. You will have to speak to Leader Desslok. However, we don't trust you at all after Melezart. Not as far as we could throw you."

"Then, I pray, give me the frequency to contact him on Gamilon, or contact his flagship."

"His flagship is in the general area. I would _never_ tell you where Gamilon is," huffed Dagon. "We will send you the frequency to contact his flagship, if you stand down and remain in orbit here under my guns. Take a single aggressive action and we _finish_ you, green Cometine monster."

Radndar gritted his teeth at the insults, but he said, "As you wish, Dagon, it shall be. Please send us that frequency."

Dagon nodded. "All right…we are sending it…"

"Thank you," said Radnar.

* * *

**VII. RADNAR'S GAME CONTINUES**

**A Far Edge of the Great Magellenic Cloud**

**The Geratz System**

**The Vicinity of Planet Geratz VIII**

**Monday: May 4, 2207**

**1800 Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time**

* * *

Leader Desslok was in space, a few hundred lightyears away, conducting trials of his massive new flagship _Excelsior_ with his fleet when the message from Dagon came in.

"Dagon?" said Desslok. "What do you have to report from Geratz?"

"Success, Leader Desslok. Even though I had to destroy Geratz VIII with some proton missiles, at long last, we have won a major victory here. I drove off a Black Nebulan commander named Vilzer in defeat and disgrace and we destroyed most of his fleet. Also, we defeated Gernitz and his Dreadnought at long last, with some…ahh…rather unexpected help."

"Unexpected?" replied Desslok.

"Yes. We received…aid…from another Cometine general. A man with a beard and long hair by the name of Radnar, sir."

"Radnar?" chuckled Desslok. "We have heard rumor that the Cometines have been fighting each other…but Radnar was cast out long ago by Zordar. He must surely be dead."

"I spoke with him, sir," said Dagon. "In fact, his Dreadnought finished off Gernitz's own Dreadnought."

"Why?" said Desslok.

"He said, sir, that Invidia has fallen into disfavor. He said that his superiors in Andromeda have decided to recognize you as the new commander of House Gatlantis. Invidia's own people, it seems, want her to stop her war. They want her dead. Radnar asked for the Command Frequency, and said he will contact you, and…"

Desslok began to laugh. Then, he said, "Dagon, have you been drinking?"

"No, sir…I have not been…"

Desslok raised his hand. "Let us see what Radnar has to say to us. I will await his message."

Dagon saluted, and the transmission ended.

_Strange,_ thought Desslok. Le_t us see if this will truly lead to anything. I will not meet face-to-face with him, though. Not yet. Not after Melezart._

* * *

**END.**

**TO BE CONTINUED WITH BOOK SEVEN: "The Princess And the Surfer"**

* * *


End file.
